Virgin Galactic's First Commercial Spaceflight is a Success
upstart writes:
Virgin Galactic's First Commercial Spaceflight Is A Success - SlashGear:
Virgin Galactic, the private space tourism company, announced today that it has completed its first ever commercial space flight without a hitch. This mission, titled "Galactic 01," was crewed by six people total, including members of the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy.
[...] In August, Virgin Galactic plans on launching the "Galactic 02" mission, and thereafter begin monthly flights.
The VSS Unity reached speeds of Mach 2.88 and an apogee (greatest distance of an orbiting object) of 52.9 miles. This successful flight comes after test flights resumed last month, nearly two years after no successful space missions were conducted. Virgin Galactic sets itself apart from more conventional space missions that utilize large multi-stage rockets like the ones used by NASA, and other private space companies like SpaceX.
[...] If you want to take part in a Virgin Galactic space mission, you can sign up, and it will set you back a cool $450,000.
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