Virgin Galactic is set to launch its third commercial spaceflight on Friday, September 8th. However, unlike its previous missions, this one will not be livestreamed, leaving space enthusiasts to rely on updates provided by the company through social media.
The Galactic 03 mission aims to send three paying customers on a suborbital journey from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The liftoff is scheduled for around 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT), the same time as Virgin Galactic’s previous missions. But without a livestream, the public will have to wait for updates to follow the progress of the flight.
In a departure from their typical procedures, Virgin Galactic has not yet revealed the identities of the three customers. All we know is that they have been ticket holders since 2005, making them part of the company’s “Founder” astronauts.
“The Galactic 03 crew bought their tickets as early as 2005 and, since then, have been an active part of the company’s vibrant Future Astronaut community,” Virgin Galactic said in a statement. It should be noted that these tickets were considerably cheaper than the current price of $450,000.
The trio will board Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity space plane, accompanied by Colin Bennett, one of the company’s astronaut instructors. Unity will be piloted by Nicola Pecile and Michael Masucci. The space plane will be carried by VMS Eve, Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft, which will release Unity at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). Unity will ignite its rocket motor to reach suborbital space before both Unity and Eve return to Earth for runway landings.
This marks Virgin Galactic’s third commercial spaceflight, following Galactic 02 on August 10th and Galactic 01 on June 29th. Including test flights, VSS Unity has now ventured to the final frontier a total of seven times.
While spectators won’t be able to witness the action live, they can stay updated on the progress of Galactic 03 through social media updates provided by Virgin Galactic. As commercial space travel continues to captivate the world, developments like these remind us that the dream of regular spaceflights is becoming a reality.