Virgin Galactic's fourth commercial flight today: What to expect
Virgin Galactic is gearing up for its fourth commercial mission, Galactic 04 today. This exciting journey will take three private passengers on a suborbital adventure aboard the reusable space plane, VSS Unity. They will be the 17th, 18th, and 19th astronauts to fly with the company. The mission will launch with VMS Eve, the carrier plane that will lift Unity off the ground, around 8:30pm IST, per Space.com. The liftoff will happen from Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Jameel Janjua and Nicola Pecile will pilot VMS Eve
The Galactic 04 crew consists of three private passengers: Ron Rosano from the United States; Trevor Beattie from the United Kingdom; and Namira Salim, a Pakistani national now residing in the United Arab Emirates. Mission commander Kelly Latimer and pilot C.J. Sturckow will steer VSS Unity, while Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor, will also be on board. In total, six people will make the trip to space. Meanwhile, pilots Jameel Janjua and Nicola Pecile will operate VMS Eve.
Suborbital trajectory and weightlessness experience
After reaching about 45,000 feet, VMS Eve will release VMS Unity, which will then ignite its rocket motor to reach suborbital space. Although it won't reach orbit, Unity will climb high enough for passengers to witness Earth's curvature against the dark expanse of outer space and can experience several minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth. The mission's duration is uncertain. However, previous commercial flights have lasted approximately 1.5 hours from Eve's takeoff to Unity's landing back at Spaceport America.
Salim will be the first female Pakistani to visit space
One of the private passengers, Salim, is poised to make history as the first female Pakistani to journey to space. A seasoned adventurer and founder of the nonprofit Space Trust, she has reportedly been waiting for her commercial spaceflight for nearly two decades. Back in 2006, Salim was among the first 100 people to purchase Virgin Galactic tickets when they were priced at $200,000 (roughly Rs. 1.64 crore). The tickets now cost $450,000 (about Rs. 3.7 crore).
Galactic 04 will be the company's ninth overall flight
Unfortunately, Virgin Galactic won't provide a live stream for the Galactic 04 spaceflight. Instead, updates will be available via their official X (formerly Twitter) handle. Virgin Galactic started flying paying customers on suborbital space trips earlier this year. The previous three commercial spaceflights happened in June, August, and September. Galactic 04 will be Virgin Galactic's fifth space trip in five months, and its ninth overall spaceflight.
