Virgin Galactic prepares for first commercial spaceflight, announces crew members

Virgin Galactic on Monday (June 26) announced the name of crewmember who will be onboard VSS Unity, for the company's first commercial spaceflight Galactic 01. Two members of Italian Air Force and one from National Research Council of Italy will take off in Virgin Galactic's spaceplane on June 29, the "target flight date". An astronaut instructor from Virgin Galactic will accompany the crew. This will be Virgin Galactic's first commercial spaceflight. The crew

The crew will take a 90-minute flight and will conduct suborbital science experiments. For this, Virgin Galactic said that VSS Unity's cabin will be turned into a suborbital science lab in order to provide the environment for 'rack mounted payloads and for the crew to interact with wearable payloads'.

"Galactic 01 is our first commercial spaceflight, and we’re honored to have been selected by the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council to support their first space research mission, ‘Virtute 1’. Virgin Galactic’s research missions will usher in a new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for government and research institutions for years to come," said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic. He was quoted on Virgin Galactic's official website.

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Those who will be onboard VSS Unity are:

• Col. Walter Villadei, Italian Air Force
• Lt. Col Angelo Landolfi, Physician, Italian Air Force
• Pantaleone Carlucci, Engineer, National Research Council of Italy
• Colin Bennett, Astronaut Instructor, Virgin Galactic

The crew will conduct 13 human-tended and autonomous experiments. These would include examining biomedicine thermo-fluid dynamics and development of innovative and sustainable materials in microgravity conditions.

Tests completed

Virgin Galactic carried out a spaceflight on Monday. The spaceflight was billed as the final test beforre the actual commercial spaceflight. It was comapny's first spaceflight in nearly two years.

"Touchdown, VSS Unity!" the company tweeted, referring to the name of the company's spaceplane. "Our crew and spaceship are back on Earth after landing smoothly at Spaceport America, New Mexico."

The mission "was a fantastic achievement for everyone at Virgin Galactic," added CEO Michael Colglazier, in a statement.

The Unity 25 mission flew four of the company employees to an altitude of just over 54 miles (87 kilometers) above sea level.

Till now, Virgin Galactic has sold 800 tickets till now for commercial spaceflights in the future. Six hundread of these tickets were sold between 2005 and 2014 for USD 200,000 to 250,000.

Two hundred tickets have been sold after the period for USD 450,000 each.

The company competes in the "suborbital" space tourism sector with billionaire Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin, which has already sent 32 people into space.

(With inputs from agencies)

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