Virgin Galactic launches fully crewed spaceflight, readies for commercial flights in June
Leah Romero
SPACEPORT AMERICA ― Virgin Galactic launched its Unity 25 flight Thursday morning with six people on board, including Jamila Gilbert from Las Cruces.
The VMS (Virgin Mothership) Eve and VSS (Virgin Spaceship) Unity took flight at about 9:15 a.m. Thursday from Spaceport America in Sierra County near Truth or Consequences. VSS Unity was released from the mothership at 10:24 a.m. at an altitude of 44,500 feet and reached suborbital space a couple minutes later.
VSS Unity and its six passengers landed back at Spaceport America at 10:37 a.m.
The Unity 25 flight was the first fully crewed rocket-powered suborbital spaceflight the company has launched since Virgin Group founder Richard Branson joined Unity 22 on July 11, 2021.
Mission of Unity 25
According to Virgin Galactic news releases, the goal of Unity 25 – the aircraft’s 25th flight – was to assess the customer experience and conduct “ground-based” training ahead of commercial service. The six passengers included two pilots – Mike Masucci and CJ Sturckow – and four mission specialists – Beth Moses, Luke Mays, Jamila Gilbert and Christopher Huie.
“New Mexico, you are even more enchanting from space,” Gilbert said in a news release following the flight. “I flew to space just one hour from the street I grew up on. It is hard to put into words what this experience was like, but I’m sure I’ll spend the rest of my life trying. I’m not only honored to be one of the first 100 women and one of 16 Hispanic and Latinx people to go to space, I’m also incredibly proud to represent the community from where this new space age is blossoming. As one of the very few nontechnical people to fly to space, my role in this mission marks a sea change in who can go to space, and is a promising sign of the opportunities Virgin Galactic and the commercial space sector are ushering in."
Post-flight evaluations and inspections are the next steps ahead of the start of commercial flights expected in June.
Status of Virgin Galactic commercial flights
The company postponed further commercial flights to service the VSS Unity and VMS Eve in 2021. VMS Eve returned to New Mexico in late February 2023 from California.
Virgin Galactic launched Unity for a glide flight April 26 to test performance following the “modification period,” evaluate flight controls and gather data on the new pylon – or connecting structure – on the mothership while the spaceship is attached.
The company said in a news release commercial flights are expected to begin in late June from New Mexico with the Galactic 01 flight. This flight is described as a "dedicated research mission."
Over 800 flight reservations have been made since Virgin Galactic opened ticket sales to the public in February 2022 at $450,000 a ticket. The goal at the time was to carry the first 1,000 commercial passengers to suborbital space by the end of 2022. It is unclear at this time how many commercial flights can be expected to launch from Spaceport America in 2023.
Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.
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