Virgin Galactic successfully completed its third regular suborbital flight, Galactic-03, on September 8. Launching from Spaceport America in New Mexico, the mission carried three paying “founding astronauts” who have been early supporters of the company’s vision for commercial space travel.
Commanded by Nicola Pecile and co-piloted by Michael Masucci, the VSS Unity took off attached to its carrier plane, VMS Eve. It reached a maximum altitude of 88.6 km, allowing passengers to briefly experience weightlessness. Both the Unity and Eve safely returned to Earth, landing just minutes after achieving suborbital flight.
This mission is the latest in a series of flights aimed at making regular commercial space travel a reality. Previous missions took place on August 10 and June 29. Notably, the identities of the private astronauts were revealed only upon landing: they include Las Vegas real estate entrepreneur Ken Baxter, South African businessman Timothy Nash, and British race car engineer Adrian Reynard.
