Virgin Galactic completes first commercial space tourism flight

Three paying passengers aboard the spaceplane experienced about four minutes of weightlessness

Three Italian passengers and three crew members launched to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight on Thursday.

The mother ship departed from a horizontal spaceport in New Mexico at 6.39pm, UAE time, and delivered the VSS Unity spaceplane to a high enough altitude, where it separated and climbed to the boundary of space, reaching an apogee of 85.1km at about 7.36pm.

It was a 70-minute experience that reportedly cost $450,000, and included about four minutes of weightlessness, before the plane landed back on a runway in the desert at 7.49pm.

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.

“Welcome back to Earth, Galactic 01! Our pilots, crew and spaceship have landed smoothly at Spaceport New Mexico," Virgin Galactic tweeted.

Passengers included Italian Air Force member Col Walter Villadei, who served as mission commander on the flight.

Cameras placed inside the cabin showed him holding up the Italian flag shortly after entering microgravity conditions.

Lt Col Angelo Landolfi is another Italian Air Force officer who was responsible for carrying out research work while aboard the spaceplane.

And Pantaleone Carlucci is an energy engineer and pilot at the National Research Council of Italy, who also did science work on the flight.

Colin Bennett from Virgin Galactic also flew to assess what the passengers’ research flight experience was like.

Mike Masucci and Nicola Pecile were pilots on the spaceplane.

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

There were 13 experiments aboard this trip.

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spaceplane blasts its engines shortly after separating from the mothership on Thursday. It carried three Italian passengers and three crew members to the edge of space. All photos: Virgin Galactic

The passengers move around in microgravity.

Italian Air Force member Coll Walter Villadei holds up the Italian flag while in microgravity.

The three Italian passengers and one Virgin Galactic employee seen enjoying microgravity aboard the VSS Unity spaceplane after it reached the edge of space.

The Virgin Galactic mothership releases the VSS Unity spaceplane, so it can climb to the edge of space.

The spaceplane climbed to an apogee of 85.1 kilometers, allowing the crew to experience about four minutes of weightlessness.

The VSS Unity spaceplane climbs to the boundary of space.

The engine on the VSS Unity spaceplane turns off as it reaches the edge of space.

A stunning view of Earth against the darkness of space from a camera aboard the Virgin Galactic spaceplane.

The VSS Unity spaceplane starts descending back to Earth after taking passengers 85.1 km above the New Mexico desert.

The VSS Unity spaceplane lands back on a runway in a New Mexico desert after its suborbital space tourism flight.

It was a successful first commercial space tourism flight by Virgin Galactic.

One of them included the Testing in Space research by the University of Rome, in which the crew measured the effects of liquid mixing in microgravity conditions.

Different mixtures were placed in syringes, which were combined once the plane reached the edge of space.

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

More than 800 Virgin Galactic ticket holders around the world are waiting for a turn on the spaceplane, which flies 89km above the New Mexico desert.

US authorities grounded Virgin Galactic spaceplanes shortly after the first crewed flight in 2021 for deviating from its flight path, causing several delays in starting commercial operations.

The company has said the next commercial flight, Galactic 02, will take place in August and will involve private customers who purchased tickets years ago, with plans for a monthly flight after that.

Rival Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, also launches space tourism flights.

It has flown 32 people to the edge of space so far since the first flight in 2021.

Sir Richard flew on Virgin Galactic's first flight in 2021, beating Mr Bezos, who did not fly on the first fully crewed Blue Origin space tourism flight until nine days later.

But Blue Origin has quickly emerged as the leading space tourism company since then.

There was also a debate on which company was actually going into space, with Virgin Galactic reportedly only reaching a peak altitude of 89km and Blue Origin flying 106km.

It is widely accepted that “space begins” at 100km, called the Karman line – the invisible boundary between Earth's atmosphere and the beginning of space.

Namira Salim, a Dubai resident, paid $200,000 to be one of the first passengers aboard the space tourist flights – and now her 19-year wait could finally be over.