Virgin Galactic launches rocketplane on first commercial sub-orbital flight to space

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic launched its first commercial space flight Thursday, sending three Italian researchers, two company pilots and an astronaut trainer on a high-speed thrill ride to the edge of space aboard a winged rocketplane.

"Incredible experience, from the takeoff to the landing," said Pantaleone Carlucci, representing Italy's National Research Council. "The acceleration, the climb and then suddenly, the microgravity. ... I had the opportunity to look outside, and the view was amazing. Fantastic! I'm speechless."

Said Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, the mission commander: "You can be told during the training what kind of experiences you may have, but in the end, when it's your body and your senses, it's completely different."

"The microgravity went very fast, but we did all the experiments we were supposed to run, and we also had an opportunity to ... really enjoy the beauty of the view outside."

Cheered on by Virgin employees, family members and friends gathered at Spaceport America in New Mexico, the twin-fuselage VMS Eve carrier jet took off around 10:30 a.m. EDT, carrying the company's VSS Unity spaceplane and its six passengers up to an altitude of about 44,500 feet.

After final checks, clamps opened and Unity detached from Eve's mid-wing attachment mechanism at 11:28 a.m.

Seconds later, the spacecraft's hybrid rocket motor ignited with a rush of flame, instantly propelling Unity up and out of the lower atmosphere on a near-vertical trajectory. Cameras mounted on the hull of the ship showed the Earth dropping away and the sky changing to deep black as the ship gained altitude.

One minute later, now traveling 2.8 times the speed of sound at an altitude of 136,000 feet, the rocket motor shut down, leaving the six crew members weightless as Unity coasted up to an altitude of 52.9 miles, just above the somewhat arbitrary 50-mile-high "boundary" between space and the discernible atmosphere.

Along the way, veteran pilot Mike Masucci and rookie co-pilot Nicola Pecile "feathered" the ship's wings, folding the swept-back wing-tip fins up about 60 degrees in a unique procedure invented by legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan to minimize heating and speeds during re-entry.

In the meantime, Villadei, Carlucci and Italian Air Force Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi began carrying out or monitoring 13 experiments designed to collect data about the effects of weightlessness on themselves and a variety of technological processes.

Amid switch throws and experiment activations, Villadei took a moment to unfurl an Italian flag as he floated above his crewmates.

The researchers were assisted by Colin Bennett, a Virgin Galactic astronaut trainer. It was the company's sixth piloted sub-orbital space flight and the first to carry paying customers, a milestone that has taken the company more than a decade longer than expected to achieve.

"Che volo fantastico (what a fantastic flight)!" Branson tweeted. "An historic moment - @virgingalactic's first commercial spaceflight completed. Ben fatto (well done)."

Che volo fantastico! An historic moment - @virgingalactic’s first commercial spaceflight completed. Ben fatto #Galactic01 https://t.co/eWHfISJjz0 pic.twitter.com/7NU5JdoyDT

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) June 29, 2023

As with all such sub-orbital flights, the crew only had about three minutes of weightlessness as the ship arced over the top of its trajectory and began falling back to Earth, weightlessness giving way to increasing "G" loads as the vehicle rapidly slowed during re-entry.

Finally, back in the dense lower atmosphere, Unity's two wings rotated back down to their normal positions and the pilots manually flew the spaceplane through a spiraling glide to landing on Spaceport America's 12,000-foot-long runway. Total time between Unity's air launch and landing: just under 14 minutes.

Villadei, who is in training for a flight to the International Space Station, said that was more than enough time for the crew's research agenda.

"You can either fly (weightless) for a few seconds in parabolic (airplane) flight or you have to fly to the International Space Station for six months. There's nothing in between," he said. "The real interesting point for all of us, it was not only just to fly the payloads we developed, but to try how this kind of new platform can provide us a kind of gap filler.

"It was really beneficial to us. ... The fact that you are flying within a plane, you can have more power, more upload mass, you can expand the possibilities for the research community."

Virgin has now launched 25 people to the edge of space, several of them more than once, including Masucci, making his fourth flight, and Bennett, making his second. Arch rival Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has launched 32 people on six sub-orbital spaceflights using its more traditional New Shepard booster and capsule.

The competition between the two companies in the space tourism marketplace has been fierce.

Virgin's first space flight came in 2018 when two company pilots flew Unity to an altitude of 51 miles. That initial launch to space came four years after a catastrophic test flight that destroyed Virgin's original spaceplane, killed the co-pilot and seriously injured the pilot when the feather mechanism was unlocked earlier than planned.

After addressing that issue, Virgin launched four successful test flights in a row before standing down for two years to upgrade the Eve carrier jet and carry out more modifications. A fifth successful test flight on May 25 cleared the way for Thursday's launch.

Blue Origin, meanwhile, began commercial operations in 2021. But the company's most recent launch in September 2022, an uncrewed research flight, experienced a booster malfunction and while the capsule's abort system operated as planned and the ship landed successfully, launches currently are on hold.

The six-member crew of Blue Origin's fifth flight in June 2022 included Hamish Harding, a billionaire pilot and explorer who was killed along with four others when the submersible Titan imploded June 18 during a commercial dive to view the wreckage of the Titanic. The mishap has raised fresh questions about the risks of private ventures into inherently dangerous environments.

Commercial spaceflight is monitored by the Federal Aviation Administration, which is responsible for licensing and ensuring minimal risk to the public. But legislation forbids the FAA from regulating crew safety procedures during a so-called "learning period" as as the commercial space market matures. Instead, passengers must provide "informed consent" that they understand the risks.

That learning period expires October 1, and the FAA is considering steps it might take if Congress does not extend the deadline.

"This includes the establishment of an Aerospace Rulemaking Committee to provide recommendations on the scope and costs of future regulations," the FAA said in a statement. "The FAA also is updating its recommended practices for human spaceflight occupant safety and is working with international organizations to develop voluntary consensus standards."

In:
• Elon Musk
• Jeff Bezos
• Virgin Galactic
• Blue Origin
• Richard Branson

William Harwood

Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News. He covered 129 space shuttle missions, every interplanetary flight since Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune and scores of commercial and military launches. Based at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Harwood is a devoted amateur astronomer and co-author of "Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia."

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