As sunshine poured down upon a small group of onlookers outside of New Mexico's Spaceport America Thursday morning, a pair of aircraft shot upwards through clear blue skies — one of them destined to fly outside of Earth's atmosphere more than 50 miles above the Land of Enchantment.
That aircraft, a spaceship called VSS Unity, carried six passengers into space as part of aerospace company Virgin Galactic's Unity 25 flight on the morning of May 25. It was the company's final step in its flight test program; up next for Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) is the start of commercial service with a crew from the Italian Air Force on a research mission currently planned for late next month.
Originally scheduled for 8 a.m. MST May 25, as Virgin Galactic announced the day before, VSS Unity and the company's "mothership," VMS Eve, took off from Spaceport America at 9:15 a.m. MST Thursday morning. For just over one hour, Eve flew upwards, carrying Unity to 44,500 feet above New Mexico.
Then, a few minutes before 10:30 a.m. MST, Eve released Unity. The spaceship's rocket engine burned, propelling Unity upwards on its boost into space.
Two minutes later Virgin Galactic announced on its Twitter page, where it was posting updates as the flight proceeded, that Unity had reached space. After five minutes in space, Virgin Galactic updated that Unity was on its descent, and at 10:37 a.m. MST the spaceship touched back down at Spaceport America.
On board VSS Unity were two pilots and four mission specialists, including Jamila Gilbert, a native New Mexican who's an artist and communications professional tapped to be part of the flight to evaluate Virgin Galactic's customer experience. Other mission specialists included Christopher Huie and Luke Mays, two other first-time astronauts, alongside Beth Moses, the chief astronaut instructor for the space tourism company.
Michael Masucci and CJ Sturckow piloted VSS Unity, and Jameel Janjua and Nicola Pecile piloted VMS Eve during the mission, dubbed Unity 25.
Click through the gallery at the top of the page to see photos from the flight, its crew and its aircraft, all courtesy of Virgin Galactic.
Aerospace enthusiasts and public figures alike were at or outside Spaceport America, located near Truth or Consequences in southern New Mexico, to watch Virgin Galactic's flight. So too was the company's founder, Sir Richard Branson, who reached space on Virgin Galactic's last spaceflight before Thursday morning back in July 2021.
Virgin Galactic posted a minute-long recap video from the flight on its Twitter page Thursday evening, showing parts of the astronaut training prior to launch, additional views from inside and outside VSS Unity and the spaceship's touchdown back at Spaceport America.
The space tourism company, which is headquartered in Mojave, California, is the anchor tenant at the commercial spaceport. The 18,000-acre facility is overseen by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, a public body that's chaired by Alicia Keyes, secretary of the New Mexico Economic Development Department.
Scott McLaughlin, the executive director at the spaceport, offered a statement after the Unity 25 flight.
It was a good day for Virgin Galactic, a good day for Spaceport America and a great day for New Mexico. This will really help move the needle for the region's goals for building the aerospace business ecosystem from Los Alamos to El Paso, a region we are now calling Space Valley.
Spaceport America has six commercial tenants alongside Virgin Galactic, and the spaceport's new Business Development Director, Francisco Pallares, Ph.D., told Albuquerque Business First earlier this month that it's close to executing deals with two new tenants. The Spaceport Authority also recently tapped three firms for a master planning project.
Its governing board was supposed to meet on Wednesday, May 24, but delayed that meeting, citing Virgin Galctic's Thursday flight as the reason. Sec. Keyes told Source New Mexico that the authority will "post when the next meeting will be but with so much travel from board members, it's looking like July." The board's last meeting was in January.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued her own statement after Virgin Galactic's Thursday flight.
Congratulations to Virgin Galactic and Spaceport America on a successful flight today. With the first commercial flights just a month away and 300 New Mexicans employed, our investment in this up-and-coming industry is clearly paying off. I also want to especially congratulate astronaut and New Mexican Jamila Gilbert for making it to space today!
After undergoing some mechanical upgrades in Mojave, including to its pylon that holds VSS Unity, VMS Eve flew to Spaceport America in mid-February. The two ships then conducted a pair of test flights — one mated configuration flight and one glide flight — prior to launching on Thursday's rocket-powered spaceflight.
Once its commercial service gets up and running, Virgin Galactic expects a cadence of one flight per month, CEO Michael Colglazier has said on previous earnings calls. The most recent of those earnings calls, held May 9, saw the company focus on its next generation of spaceships, called the Delta class, which are planned to be assembled at an under-construction manufacturing facility near Phoenix.
Virgin Galactic has been beset by delays in starting its commercial service. The company currently has more than 750 spaceflight reservations, Business First has previously reported, and it started selling additional tickets for those flights early last year at a cost of $450,000.
The Federal Aviation Administration investigated a mishap during a Virgin Galactic flight in July 2021 before clearing the company to resume flight operations in late September of that year.
The company will now review data from Thursday's test flight over the next several weeks before beginning commercial service with the Italian Air Force crew on its "Galactic 01" mission next month.
