Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic mission Galactic 04 was the fifth successful space undertaking in five months. The latest mission achieved the feat of carrying the first Pakistani woman to suborbital space.
VSS Unity was piloted by Commander Kelly Latimer and Pilot CJ Sturckow, with Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses on board. VMS Eve, the company’s carrier mothership, was piloted by Commander Nicola Pecile and Pilot Jameel Janjua.
“Release, release, release! Virgin Spaceship (VSS) Unity has successfully released from our mothership Virgin Mother Ship (VNS) Eve and ignited the rocket motor,” the company announced on its X account.
According to Virgin, the craft attained an apogee of 54.3 miles from the surface of the Earth, and hit a top speed of Mach 2.95 — nearly three times the speed of sound — during its short trip.
“Our teams in New Mexico and California have delivered on our monthly spaceflight objectives. Three new astronauts journeyed to space today and brought back incredible memories and stories of their experience above the Earth,” said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic.
Colglazier said these early missions with the company’s initial ship, VSS Unity, have been key to determine future operations. The success of Virgin Galactic’s spaceship informed and confirmed the design and maintenance objectives for the Delta class spaceships, he said, including the production tooling for those ships, which Colglazirer said to be on track to commence later in the 4th quarter.
The space company will now proceed with post-flight inspections and analysis, preparing for the next commercial space mission, Galactic 05. No dates have been announced yet.
Virgin Galactic has one main competitor in the suborbital space tourism business: Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ aerospace company. However, Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle hasn’t flown since suffering a failure during an uncrewed research flight in September 2022.
