Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by British tycoon Richard Branson, has announced that the crew of VSS Unity and Galactic01 will take off from the American Spaceport in New Mexico at around 23:00 this evening for their first commercial space mission.

The flight is called "Galactic 01" and researchers from the Italian Air Force and the Italian National Research Council (Italy National Research Council) will go to space.

According to reports, today's Galactic01 mission will conduct 13 autonomous and manual experiments that will study biomedical thermohydrodynamics and innovative and sustainable materials in a microgravity environment.

From this mission, Virgin Galactic will enter the business operation phase. It is said that hundreds of space tourists have bought tickets, and the whole journey is 90 minutes long.

Once the first mission is successfully completed, Virgin Galactic is expected to carry out its second commercial mission in early August and hopes to fly every month in the future.

▲ Galactic01 multiplication group

▲ chief astronaut coach Colin Bennett

▲ Walter Villadei

▲ Angelo Landolfi

▲ Pantaleone Carlucci

Commander Mike Masucci of ▲ VSS Unity. This will be his fourth space flight.

▲ pilot, co-pilot of NicolaPecile,VSS Unity, a former Italian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel.

▲ Kelly Latimer (Kelly Latimer) is the commander of VMS Eve. She has been flying since 1989 and has flown for more than 6700 hours

▲ pilot JameelJanjua, who has been flying since 1995, has flown more than 60 types of aircraft as a major in the Canadian Air Force. Virgin made its first manned space flight in July 2021, and founder Richard Branson (Richard Branson) personally took a spaceship to the edge of space. Now, a successful test may be crucial for Virgin Galactic, which is still losing money, losing more than $500 million in 2022.

According to reports, each "ticket" of Virgin Galaxy costs $450000 (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 3.258 million yuan) and requires a deposit of $150000 (currently about 1.086 million yuan). Commercial services can help Virgin contain these losses and fund its long-term plans, including the next-generation Delta, which will be put into use in 2026.

In addition to the internal economic pressure, there is also external pressure. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company has begun to successfully send users into space, and SpaceX is slowly realizing its dream of traveling to the moon. While these flights are out of reach for many ordinary people, Virgin still doesn't want to see its potential customers lost to competitors.

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