Virgin Galactic schedules May 25th for first spaceflight since Branson

Virgin Galactic aims to start as early as May 25th next space flight, This is both the first in nearly two years since flight founder Sir Richard Branson and the planned final step before commercial service begins.

Dubbed Unity 25, the mission marks the company’s fifth spaceflight to date and will depart from Spaceport America in New Mexico. It is a “final evaluation flight” with six Virgin Galactic staff on board for a short trip to the edge of space.

The update comes after a longer-than-expected period of sanitation for the company’s spacecraft: A few months after Branson’s flight and following an FAA investigation into a mishap during his voyage, the company suspended operations for a planned period of “eight until the process lasted.” 10 months – but in the end it lasted almost 16 months.

Virgin Galactic shares rose as much as 5% in early trading Wednesday after the announcement, but then gave up gains to trade little changed on the day. The company announced first-quarter results earlier this month that showed mounting losses as it funds the development and expansion of its spacecraft fleet.

In-house pilots Mike Masucci and CJ Sturckow will pilot the VSS Unity spacecraft, while Jameel Janjua and Nicola Pecile will pilot the VMS Eve carrier aircraft. In the passenger cabin will be Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses, as well as Astronaut Instructor Luke Mays, Chief Technical Officer Christopher Huie and Chief Internal Communications Manager Jamila Gilbert.

Virgin Galactic’s approach to space tourism is to fly to an altitude of about 40,000 feet, launch the spacecraft, and fire its engine to ascend over 80 kilometers (or about 262,000 feet) — the altitude the US considers Recognize the limits of space.

Known as suborbital, this type of spaceflight allows passengers a few minutes of weightlessness, in contrast to the much longer, more difficult, and more expensive orbital flights operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. After flying his own spacecraft in 2021, Branson told CNBC he hopes to fly with SpaceX.

Depending on the results and data collected by Unity 25, the company aims to fly its first commercial mission “late June”.