Virgin Galactic to launch 5th commercial spaceflight next week
Virgin Galactic is planning to launch its fifth commercial spaceflight, dubbed Galactic 06, the launch window for which opens on November 2. The mission is designated for research purposes and will take a three-member crew to suborbital space and bring them back to Earth. The passengers on Galactic 06 include an unidentified Franco-Italian private astronaut, planetary scientist Alan Stern, and Kellie Gerardi, a science communicator and bioastronautics researcher at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS).
Alan Stern and Kellie Gerardi to conduct research during flight
During the flight, both Stern and Gerardi will perform research related to the impact of spaceflight on the human body. Stern, who is the principal investigator for NASA's New Horizons Pluto mission, will also "conduct practice activities for an astronomical experiment" planned for a future NASA flight, as stated by Virgin Galactic. Meanwhile, Gerardi will examine a biomonitoring device, collect biomedical data, and perform a fluid dynamics experiment.
Virgin Galactic's space tourism flights
Virgin Galactic's space tourism flights employ a "mothership" aircraft called VMS Eve to transport the space plane, called VSS Unity, to an altitude of roughly 50,000 feet before releasing it. Unity then activates its rocket engines, propelling the space plane into suborbital space at nearly three times the speed of sound. Although Unity will not make it to orbit, passengers aboard the space plane can experience weightlessness and get stunning views of space before returning to Earth.
Recent accomplishments of Virgin Galactic
Galactic 05 will launch from Spaceport America, New Mexico, on November 2. Virgin Galactic started taking paying customers to space earlier this year. Galactic 05 will be its last commercial spaceflight for 2023 and Unity's sixth overall flight this year. On the recent Galactic 04 mission, the company flew the first Pakistani to space. Also, the firm took the first mother-daughter pair and the youngest person ever, to space, on Galactic 02. The company charges $450,000/ticket (about Rs. 3.7 crore).
