Sir Richard Branson’s VSS Unity successfully reached space on the weekend.
It was Virgin Galactic’s fourth rocket-powered spaceflight, the 22nd test flight for the spacecraft - and the very first test flight with a full crew in the cabin.
That included company founder, Sir Richard, himself, who said: “I have dreamt about this moment since I was a child, but nothing could have prepared me for the view of Earth from space. We are at the vanguard of a new space age. As Virgin’s founder, I was honoured to test the incredible customer experience as part of this remarkable crew of mission specialists and now astronauts. I can’t wait to share this experience with aspiring astronauts around the world.”
The goal of Virgin Galactic is to inaugurate space travel for everyday (albeit very wealthy) travel consumers.
“Our mission is to make space more accessible to all,” Branson added.
“In that spirit, and with today’s successful flight of VSS Unity, I’m thrilled to announce a partnership with Omaze and Space for Humanity to inspire the next generation of dreamers. For so long, we have looked back in wonder at the space pioneers of yesterday. Now, I want the astronauts of tomorrow to look forward and make their own dreams come true.”
Testing the Paying Customers’ Experience
Sunday’s test flight on board the VSS Unity lasted 68 minutes and included 4 minutes of weightlessness in zero gravity.
VSS Unity achieved a speed of Mach 3 after being released from the mothership, VMS Eve. The vehicle reached space, at an altitude of 53.5 miles, before gliding smoothly to a runway landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
It was also the first, in-flight livestream of a spaceflight experience to audiences around the world; although not without a couple of glitches - which seems pretty understandable at the edge of space.
Here’s a recording of the livestream of the groundbreaking spaceflight.
The crew fulfilled a number of test objectives related to the cabin and customer experience, including evaluating the commercial customer cabin, the views of Earth from space, the conditions for conducting research and the effectiveness of the five-day pre-flight training program.
The fully-crewed test flight provided potential future space travellers with a very clear sense of what the first consumer space flight experiences will be.
During the test flight, the livestream audiences saw the sky turn from blazing blue to midnight black. Sir Richard unbuckled from his seat when they reached zero gravity and floated around the cabin while looking at the view, which he said was “just magical.”
Customer flights will debut when the company completes its series of test flights. Tickets are on sale for USD $250,000 per pax, and Open Jaw knows of at least one Canadian already with a ticket.
Canadian Connection
Back on Earth following the successful test flight, former astronaut, Canadian Chris Hadfield, pinned ‘astronaut wings’ on Sir Richard and the three other pax.
Billionaire Space Race
Sunday's Virgin Galactic triumph for Branson has been 17 years in the making, and puts him at the head of the club of billionaires reaching for space. He’s now the first person to be flown into space by a company he owns.
It might get crowded up there.
Just last week, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who is also CEO of the space company Blue Origin, announced he’ll attempt to reach an altitude of nearly 63 miles - which some consider to be the actual boundary of space - on 20JUL during the first crewed flight of his company’s capsule.
And in APR this year, South-African-Canadian-American billionaire founder Elon Musk’s SpaceX beat Blue Origin to a $2.9 billion contract to build a lunar lander for NASA.
