Posts Tagged: Galactic
Virgin Galactic will start commercial spaceflight as soon as June 27th
After years of development, Virgin Galactic is finally ready to take paying customers. The company has confirmed that its first commercial spaceflight, Galactic 01, will launch between June 27th and June 30th. This inaugural mission will carry three people from Italy's Air Force and National Research Council as they conduct microgravity research. Virgin had anticipated a late June start, but hadn't committed to that window until now.
The company already has follow-up flights scheduled. Galactic 02 is expected to launch in early August and will carry a private crew. Virgin will fly on a monthly basis afterward, although details of future missions aren't yet available. At least the first two flights will stream live through the company's website.
Virgin conducted its last pre-commercial flight test, its fifth spaceflight of any kind, in late May. The company faced numerous delays and incidents getting to that point, however. The company completed its first SpaceShipTwo test flights in 2013, but paused its efforts after the deadly 2014 crash of VSS Enterprise. Flight testing didn't resume until VSS Unity's glide test at the end of 2016. The firm finally reached space in 2018, but had to wait until 2021 to complete its first fully crewed spaceflight with founder Richard Branson aboard. It pushed back commercial service multiple times due to varying factors, most recently delays in upgrading the VMS Eve "mothership" that carries SpaceShipTwo vehicles to their launch altitude.
The debut is important for Virgin's business. Virgin has operated at a loss for years, losing more than $ 500 million just in 2022. Commercial service won't recoup those investments quickly even at $ 450,000 per ticket, but it will give the company a significant source of revenue.
This isn't the start of space tourism for Virgin. In that sense, it's still trailing Blue Origin. Galactic 01 will put Virgin ahead of SpaceX, though, as that company's Starship rocket has yet to reach space and isn't expected to launch its first lunar tourist flights until late 2024 at the earliest. While Virgin is less ambitious than Elon Musk's operation, it's also achieving its goals sooner.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/virgin-galactic-will-start-commercial-spaceflight-as-soon-as-june-27th-214515616.html?src=rss
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Virgin Galactic delays the start of its paid spaceflights to the end of 2022
Virgin Galactic has suffered yet another setback. On Thursday, the company told CNBC it has delayed the start of its commercial space tourism service to the fourth quarter of 2022. It had previously hoped to begin offering paid spaceflights sometime in the third quarter of next year.
With the delay, the company will begin refurbishing both its carrier airplane and spacecraft this month. Virgin Galactic says it expects the entire process should take between eight to 10 months. As a result of the move, Unity 23, the company’s next flight, won’t take off until mid-2022 at the earliest.
“The re-sequencing of our enhancement period and the Unity 23 flight underscores our safety-first procedures, provides the most efficient path to commercial service, and is the right approach for our business and our customers,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement.
The delay is not connected to the recent investigation the FAA conducted into Unity 22, the flight that took Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson to the edge of space. The federal agency cleared the company for future flights after completing the investigation.
Under Armour will make the space suits for Virgin Galactic flights
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Watch Virgin Galactic Unity’s second rocket-powered flight
Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity recently flew its second rocket-powered flight merely a couple of months after its first. That's definitely a victory for the company, considering it designed Unity to be flown at a higher frequency than other spacecraft….
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Virgin Galactic conducts a ‘dry run’ for rocket-powered flights
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (official name VSS Unity) has just completed its sixth test glide. The reusable spaceplane still has between two to nine more staged glides to go before the aerospace company moves on to rocket-propelled tests. But this…
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