Tag Archives: Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. has announced the crew of its seventh spaceflight and second commercial spaceflight, ‘Galactic 02,’ which will fly three private passengers to space, achieving several historical milestones and furthering the Company’s mission of broadening access to space.

Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its inaugural commercial spaceflight from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The Galactic 01 spaceflight carried 13 research payloads and three crew members from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy. The spaceflight took off at 8:30 am MT (14:30 GMT), rising to an altitude at release at 44,500 feet. The flight's apogee was 52.9 miles, the top speed was Mach 2.88, and the landing time was 9:42 am MT (15:42 GMT).

Virgin Galactic Holdings have announced the start of commercial spaceline operations. The first commercial spaceflight, 'Galactic 01', will tentatively fly between June 27 – June 30, 2023. The second commercial spaceflight, 'Galactic 02,' will follow in early August 2023, with monthly spaceflights expected thereafter.

Virgin Galactic has announced the Virgin Galactic Unity 25 crew who will be aboard VSS Unity’s return to space later this month. Unity 25’s mission objective is to conduct the final assessment of the spaceflight system and astronaut experience before commercial service begins in late June.

Virgin Galactic has announced a successful suborbital test of the VSS Unity spaceplane and will begin rocket-powered spaceflight tests in the coming months. The Spaceplane completed its final glide test during a flight in New Mexico. During the test, VMS Eve took off from Spaceport America with Unity between its twin fuselages at 12:35 UTC. After reaching an altitude of 47,000 feet (14.3 kilometers), Eve released Unity at 13:47 UTC, with the spaceplane subsequently gliding back to the runway in New Mexico, testing modifications to the spacecraft's flight controls and handling.

Software startup Epsilon3 has raised US $15 million in a Series A funding round led by investor Lux Capital to expand its suite of space project management solutions, the company said. Epsilon3’s platform is web-based and provides spacecraft manufacturing and operations collaboration tools.

In this Space Café Radio – our Review 2021 series, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Ken Hodgkins,  President of International Space Enterprise Consultantsabout his space highlights in 2021 and what to watch out for the upcoming year in space.

Virgin Galactic reported a strong interest in suborbital flights from customers as the company sold approximately 100 tickets for US $450,000 each after reopening ticket sales in August. This makes the total number of bookings about 700. Virgin Galactic said the new customers had previously paid a deposit of US $1,000 to be the first in line when ticket sales resumed.

On Monday, UBS analyst Myles Walton downgraded Virgin Galactic (ticker: SPCE) from Hold to Sell as the company is delaying commercial space flights. The news disappointed investors who had expected revenue-generating, commercial operations to start early next year. Last week Virgin said they would reorganise their development and test flight schedule.

In the past few months, the space industry experienced some new milestones. Civilian astronauts launched into space. Richard Branson flew Virgin Galactic on July 11, 2021. Jeff Bezos flew with Blue Origin on July 20, 2019, and a second flight on October 13, 2021, with the iconic William Shatner. SpaceX’s Inspiration4 launched on Sept 15, 2021,