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Virgin Galactic flew its second business spaceflight on Thursday, its first carrying private-paying tourists.
Called Galactic 02, the flight launched from Spaceport America in Recent Mexico. The corporate’s spacecraft was flown by a pair of pilots – CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer – and carried 4 other people: Virgin Galactic chief astronaut trainer Beth Moses, to oversee the mission from contained in the cabin, and a trio of passengers.
The three customers onboard Galactic 02 were British former Olympian Jon Goodwin and two passengers from the Caribbean, Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, who won seats through a charity fundraising drawing by nonprofit Space for Humanity.
The flight takes customers past an altitude of 80 kilometers, or about 262,000 feet — what the U.S. recognizes because the boundary of space.
The mission is Virgin Galactic’s seventh spaceflight up to now, and its third since May. The corporate goals to fly spacecraft VSS Unity at a rate of once a month and is developing a fleet of spacecraft called “Delta-class,” planned to debut in 2026, to fly at a weekly rate.
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Virgin Galactic uses a two-step system generally known as “air launch” to fly its passengers on a suborbital spaceflight.
Such a spaceflight gives passengers a few minutes of weightlessness, unlike the for much longer, harder and costlier private orbital flights conducted by Elon Musk’s SpaceX. During Virgin Galactic’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Michael Colglazier addressed concerns about extreme tourism experiences within the wake of the Titan submersible tragedy earlier this 12 months.
“We didn’t, in reality” see any fallout from Virgin Galactic customers, Colglazier said.
The corporate accomplished its first business spaceflight, the Galactic 01 mission, in June carrying members of the Italian Air Force.
Virgin Galactic has a backlog of about 800 passengers. Lots of those tickets were sold at prices between $200,000 and $250,000 over a decade ago, but the corporate reopened ticket sales two years ago, with pricing starting at $450,000 per seat.