Two years after its last mission, today to launch its first commercial flight into the atmosphere. The VSS Unity rocket that , as well as the two pilots needed to fly. But who’s on board this landmark mission?
When it takes off at 11 a.m. EDT, the VSS Unity rocket will be mounted beneath the wings of an enormous mother ship at 50,000 feet. There, it will drop from the mother ship and launch into an area close to space at Mach 3.
The ship’s tickets, which cost between $200,000 and $450,000 , were all snapped up by Italian officials, the site reports. As well as the pilots and a Virgin Galactic instructor, the VSS Unity will carry will also carry Angelo Landolfi and Walter Villadei, two senior members of Italy’s air force, and Pantaleone Carlucci, an engineer from the National Research Council of Italy, who will be conducting a strict set of experiments in that limited time, :
“The crew will conduct several suborbital science experiments during the 90-minute flight, such as testing equipment for measuring cosmic radiation and studying various materials in microgravity conditions. The cabin of the SpaceShipTwo vehicle VSS Unity — the rocket-powered spaceplane housing Virgin Galactic’s passengers — will be converted into a suitable suborbital science lab to conduct the experiments.”
The mission will be . If it’s successful, Virgin Galactic will begin competing with Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin, which has been offering private flights into space for a few years now. However, after an issue with one of its rockets last September, the organization paused launches while it investigated the cause.