Virgin Galactic’s Sixth Commercial Spaceflight Succeeds as the Company Prepares to Retire its VSS Unity Spaceplane

(Orange County, California) Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) on Friday completed its sixth commercial spaceflight, Galactic 06 — the company’s first spaceflight of 2024 and its 11th mission to date.

Photo of the view from VSS Unity in space courtesy of Virgin Galactic’s X account, @virgingalactic.

Galactic 06 marked the first time that four customers were carried by VSS Unity, along with the aircraft’s two pilots; previous commercial flights had three customers on board along with a Virgin Galactic astronaut trainer.

“The success of Galactic 06 and the company’s other commercial spaceflights in recent months only increases our confidence in the repeatability of our product and our ability to deliver a superlative experience to our customers,” Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said in a statement, according to Spacenews.com.

Onboard Galactic 06 were four astronaut-passengers, Astronaut 023, Lina Borozdina, a dual-citizen of Ukraine and Nevada, United States and the first Ukrainian female to reach suborbital space; Astronaut 024, Robie Vaughn of Texas; Astronaut 025, Franz Haider of Austria and Astronaut 026, Neil Kornswiet of California. VSS Unity was flown by Commander CJ Sturckow and Pilot Nicola Pecile with Michael Masucci and Dan Alex at the controls of Unity’s carrier, VMS Eve.

Photo of the Galactic 06 crew onboard VSS Unity in outer space couresty of Virgin Galactic’s X account, @virgingalactic.

The identities of the four astronaut-passengers were not revealed – with the exception of their astronaut numbers and home nations and states – until after yesterday’s flight.

“Robie, Lina, Neil, and Franz you crushed it!,” read a post on X from @VGChiefTrainer, Virgin’s Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses, today, on January 27th. “It was a joy to behold your unfolding joy. Thank you so much for flying to space on @virgingalactic. #Galactic06”

More than 150 guests joined Virgin Galactic’s team at Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico to watch the launch. Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, listed off from the site at around noon EST (10am MST, 17.00 GMT) with the six-passenger space plane VSS Unity beneath its wings, and subsequently dropped Unity at an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13,700 meters), at which point the space plane ignited its rocket motor and headed up to suborbital space, according to Space.com.

The Galactic 06 passenger-astronauts experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and saw their home planet from the perspective of space before returning to Earth for a runway landing at Spaceport America about 90 minutes after liftoff.

Editor’s Note: Virgin Galactic did not livestream the mission, but posted updates on X during the mission. @virgingalactic: we’d love to watch the footage next time.

Tickets to ride the six-passenger Unity currently cost $450,000 each. Virgin’s competitor in the space tourism industry, Blue Origin – which takes people and payloads to space aloft its rocket-capsule New Shepard (New Shepard last flew in August of 2022, prior to a failure during an uncrewed research mission in September 2022) – has not yet revealed its ticket prices.

Virgin Galactic’s VSS unity suborbital spaceplane lands at Spaceport America at the conclusion of the Galactic 06 flight Jan 26. Credit: Spaceport America Spaceport America via SpaceNews.com.

Virgin Galactic’s Galactic 06 flight was the company’s first since a dedicated research flight, Galactic 05, on November 2, 2023; about a week after Galactic 05, Virgin Galactic announced that it would soon wind down flights on VSS Unity in order to conserve its cash reserves for development of its next-generation Delta class of suborbital vehicles. The Delta vehicles are intended to fly more frequently and at lower costs than Unity, according to Spacenews.com.

Spacenews.com also reported that Virgin Galactic plans to fly Unity again on Galactic 07, which will carry a researcher along with private astronauts, in the second quarter of this year and possibly on a Galactic 08 mission in mid-2024; thereafter, the company plans to retire VSS Unity and shift its resources into Delta-class vehicle development.

According to Virgin representatives, each Delta plane will be able to fly up to twice per week, Space.com reported. The first Delta vehicle is on track to begin test flights in 2025, and the company intends for Delta aircraft to begin commercial operations in 2026, according to Space.com.

‘Galactic ’06’ Flight Facts, per a press release from Virgin Galactic:

• Take-off Time 10:00 am MT (12pm EST)
• Altitude at Release: 44,493 ft
• Apogee: 55.1 miles
• Top Speed: Mach 2.98
• Landing Time: 10:56 am MT (12:56pm EST)