Inspenet, May 29, 2023
Virgin Galactic successfully completed a six-person flight to the edge of space in its Unity spacecraft, lifted off and landed at the Mojave Spaceport in New Mexico.
The flight, called Unity 25, lasted about 20 minutes, according to the company’s Twitter account, and was crewed by two experienced pilots and four passengers, all Virgin Galactic employees. It was the company’s first manned mission in nearly two years.
The company had advertised this mission as a “final evaluation of the complete spaceflight system and astronaut experience” before commencing commercial flights.
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The flight followed the profile of previous Virgin Galactic missions. Lifting off from the company’s Spaceport America launch site in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic’s massive white transport plane, VMS Eve, lifted Unity to an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet (15,244 meters).
Eve then launched Unity and soon after the pilots fired up the spaceplane’s hybrid rocket engine. Unity then ascended to the edge of space, more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Earth’s surface.
While the passengers on board experienced a few minutes of weightlessness, the pilots reconfigured the spaceplane to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and then glide the vehicle to the runway, where Unity landed as an airplane.
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Virgin Galactic had not flown the Unity spacecraft since July 2021, when the company flew its billionaire founder Richard Branson and five other company employees to the edge of space.
A few weeks ago, Virgin Galactic assured investors that it was on track to start its commercial service as planned. Its first mission will be a research flight for the Italian Air Force, which will include two Italian military officers, as well as an aerospace engineer from the Italian National Research Council.
Members of the public also bought tickets during a sale last year, paying $450,000 per seat.
Source : https://news.eseuro.com/negocio/1739370.html
Photos : Virgin Galactic
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