She will now not be an area maiden.
The company announced later this month that Virgin Galactic will launch its first-ever industrial spaceflight – with a ticket price of $450,000.
Part of billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, the corporate will launch its debut mission “Galactic 01” between June 27 and 30, depending on weather conditions.
The second launch, “Galactic 02”, can be scheduled for August.
“Galactic 01, a scientific research mission, will take three crew members from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy to conduct microgravity research” Virgin Galactic representatives wrote in an announcement.
“With scientific payloads on board, the spaceflight will showcase the worth and power of the unique suborbital science lab that Virgin Galactic offers,” they added.
Passengers can be launched to an astonishing 300,000 feet – over 55 miles – above the Earth’s surface via a launch vehicle called VMS Eve and a six-seater SpaceShipTwo spaceplane with two pilots called VSS Unity. in line with Space.com.
Once launched, the Eve will launch passengers into the air before falling 50,000 feet. Unity will then use its own rockets to depart orbit at 3 times the speed of sound.
In space, passengers can unbuckle their seatbelts and experience weightlessness for a couple of minutes, and revel in amazing views of the Earth from one among the spacecraft’s 17 windows.
The spacecraft will then glide back to the planet to land on an unpowered runway.
These missions will launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic’s industrial hub.
A once-in-a-lifetime trip costs a whopping $450,000, with an initial deposit of $150,000 and a final deposit of $300,000.
There are already several hundred customers who’ve booked a spot.
All passengers must complete a medical questionnaire and undergo last-minute check-ups before take-off, the corporate said.
In its Virgin Galactic flight brochure, it said passengers even have the choice of every week’s value of coaching, which incorporates “weightlessness preparation, G-Force readiness, emergency procedures, sensory saturation and more.”
Unity has flown five test missions to date, including its final launch in May.
The Virgin mission comes nearly two years after Branson surpassed fellow billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his rocket company Blue Origin within the space race.
Virgin Galactic has been working for greater than a decade to send paying passengers on short space jumps, and in 2021 it finally got approval from the federal government.
The company said it plans to launch 400 flights a yr from Spaceport America after construction of a latest class of rocket-powered aircraft is accomplished at a facility in neighboring Arizona.
