Virgin Galactic plans to livestream the space tourism company's first commercial spaceflight, currently set for the morning of Thursday, June 29.
That flight, dubbed "Galactic 01," will feature a four-person crew, including two personnel from the Italian Air Force, an engineer from the National Research Council of Italy and a Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor. It's a research mission to collect data by conducting different experiments in microgravity during the 90-minute flight.
The livestream is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. on Thursday and can be accessed on Virgin Galactic's website, which has more details on the full research payloads on board the flight.
Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col Mike Masucci and former Italian Air Force Lt. Col. Nicola Pecile, will pilot Virgin Galactic's spaceship, VSS Unity, which carries the crew members, during the mission. Retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Kelly Latimer and retired Canadian Air Force Maj. Jameel Janjua are set to pilot the company's "mothership," VMS Eve, which carries VSS Unity up to around 40,000 feet before the spaceship's boosters fire up, sending it into space.
The four crew members on board VSS Unity during the mission are:
- Col. Walter Villadei, Italian Air Force mission commander, who is in charge of the research execution during the mission.
- Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, Italian Air Force physician, who will conduct tests while in microgravity including measuring cognitive performance.
- Pantaleone Carlucci, National Research Council of Italy engineer, who will conduct human performance tests during the flight.
- Virgin Galactic Astronaut Instructor Colin Bennett, who trained the crew, who will assess the research flight experience during the mission.
The company made its return to space during a test flight in late May, one of the final tests leading up to this research mission. That was the first time Virgin Galactic had carried astronauts into the upper reaches of the atmosphere since its founder, Sir Richard Branson, flew in July 2021.
During an investor call in February 2022, Virgin Galactic's CEO, Michael Colglazier, said the company was "on track and on schedule" to begin its commercial service in the fourth quarter of last year. Then, a few months later, Virgin pushed its commercial flight timeframe back to the first quarter of 2023.
VMS Eve flew from Mojave, California, to Spaceport America in February 2023, the mothership's first flight since October 2021. It underwent upgrades while in California in preparation for commercial service.
Following this month's research mission, Virgin Galactic has its second commercial flight, "Galactic 02," planned for August. After that, the company wants to run space tourism flights with customers who pay upwards of $400,000 for seats on board VSS Unity at a rate of one flight per month.
