Who are the passengers on Virgin Galactic's first commercial space tourism flight?

The flight will be broadcast live on the company's website

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  Passengers, from left, Pantaleone Carlucci, Col Walter Villadei and Lt Col Angelo Landolfi. Photo: Virgin Galactic

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  The three Italian passengers are scheduled to fly on Thursday on the first commercial space tourism flight by Virgin Galactic. Photo: Virgin Galactic

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  FILE - Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity departs Mojave Air & Space Port in Mojave, Calif. , for the final time as Virgin Galactic shifts its SpaceFlight operations to New Mexico, Feb. 13, 2020. Virgin Galactic announced Wednesday, June 14, 2023, that monthly commercial flights to the edge of space will begin for ticket-holders in August, following a research flight planned for the end of June. (Matt Hartman via AP, File)

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  Col Walter Villadei, a member of the Italian Air Force here during a training session, will be the mission commander on the flight. Photo: Virgin Galactic

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  The Unity spacecraft during a mission on May 25, 2023. AFP

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  Colin Bennett is an employee at Virgin Galactic and is the lead astronaut on the mission. Photo: Virgin Galactic

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  The crew during a training session for the space tourism flight. Photo: Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is scheduled to launch its first commercial space tourism flight tomorrow, with three paying passengers on board.

The company announced the names of the passengers on Tuesday, all of whom are researchers from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy.

The tickets reportedly cost $450,000 for the 90-minute trip, which includes about four minutes of weightlessness.

A Virgin Galactic employee who will be assessing the crew’s experience will be in the cabin of the VSS Unity spaceplane, while two pilots will be in the cockpit.

The flight – Galactic 01 – comes two years after Sir Richard Branson and a crew of five flew on the first fully crewed flight by Virgin Galactic on July 11, 2021.

“Virgin Galactic's team and vehicles are ready to fly the company's first customers to space, having successfully completed the Unity 25 space flight and subsequent routine analysis and vehicle inspections,” the company said on June 16.

Virgin Galactic launches passengers from a horizontal spaceport in the New Mexico desert, with a carrier jet that releases the VSS Unity spaceplane at an altitude of 15,240m.

It then climbs to the edge of space, taking the crew 89km above the desert, allowing them to experience the same weightlessness as astronauts do.

With the flight taking off on Thursday, The National explains who the crew members are, what they will be doing aboard the spaceplane and where to watch the live broadcast.

How to watch

Virgin Galactic will share a global livestream of the flight on their website. The broadcast is expected to begin at 7pm, UAE time on the day of the flight (June 29).

The three Italian passengers who are flying on the first commercial space tourism flight by Virgin Galactic. Left to right: Col. Walter Villadei, Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi and Pantaleone Carlucci. Photo: Virgin Galactic

Passengers

Coll Walter Villadei

A member of the Italian Air Force, Col Villadei will serve as mission commander on the flight.

He will be wearing a smartsuit that will measure his biometric data and physiological responses to weightlessness.

This suborbital flight is part of his astronaut training for a future space mission to the International Space Station.

Lt Col Angelo Landolfi

Also a member of the Italian Air Force, Lt Col Landolfi will be carrying out research work on the flight.

He will measure cognitive performance and investigate how certain liquids and solids mix in microgravity.

He holds a PhD in legal medicine and forensic science, and previously trained as a crew surgeon as part of a cosmonaut training programme.

Pantaleone Carlucci

Mr Carlucci is an energy engineer and pilot at the National Research Council of Italy.

He will be carrying out tests that involve wearing sensors that record heart rate, brain function and other human performance metrics during space flight.

He will be the flight engineer and payload specialist on the flight.

Crew

Colin Bennett is an employee at Virgin Galactic and is the lead astronaut on this mission, carrying out all training and preparation.

His mission is to assess the research flight experience.

Mike Masucci and Nicola Pecile will be the pilots on the spaceplane.

Kelly Latimer and Jameel Janjua will be the pilots on the mothership that will release the spaceplane once it is at its target altitude.

Joy ride or science work?

While most space tourism flights that have taken place since 2021 have been primarily joy rides, this one seems to involve lots of research work.

There are 13 experiments going aboard this trip.

One of them includes the TESting in Space research by the University of Rome, in which the crew will measure the effects of liquid mixing in microgravity conditions.

Different mixtures have been placed in syringes, which will be combined once the plane reaches the edge of space.

It is hoped the research will help in future in-space manufacturing and biomedical applications efforts.