MDT (1540 GMT).Ī celebration followed, including a performance by Khalid, who debuted his new space-inspired single, "New Normal." "Late Night" host Stephen Colbert and former Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield were also on hand and helped narrate the flight for those watching online. Pulling out of a 3.5 G (three and a half times the force of gravity) descent, Mackay and Masucci flew VSS Unity as a glider back to the ground, touching down on the runway at 9:40 a.m. It was so great to get out there and test the customer experience." "Initially, I thought testing the customer experience was a little bit of an excuse to get me on - it wasn't. "I was so honored to test the customer experience," said Branson. With its unique tail booms feathered much like a shuttlecock, VSS Unity fell back into the atmosphere to begin its return to Spaceport America. The four mission specialists released their straps and floated weightless around the cabin for about 5 minutes, while Mackay and Masucci configured the vehicle for its return to Earth. First-time fliers Branson, Bennett and Bandla are the 581st, 582nd and 583rd people to fly above 50 miles (80 km) and the eighth, ninth and tenth recipients of FAA Commercial Astronaut wings. After about a minute the engine switched off and SpaceShipTwo pilots Dave Mackay and Michael "Sooch" Masucci oriented VSS Unity to maximize the view of Earth below.Ĭontinuing to coast upwards, the Unity 22 crew reached a maximum altitude of 53.5 miles (86.1 km) high - 3.5 miles (5.6 km) above the spaceflight qualifying altitude under Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules, but under the 62 mile (100 km) Kármán line recognized by the world-governing Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).įlying with the 70-year-old Branson as mission specialists were Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, who was making her second spaceflight aboard Unity lead operations engineer Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla, Virgin Galactic's vice president for government affairs and research operations, who spent some of her time operating an experiment from the University of Florida to evaluate the human-tended research experience.Īs a flight crew (rather than passengers) all six Unity 22 crew members are now Commercial Astronauts as defined by the FAA. With a crowd of spectators watching from the spaceport below and even more through a live broadcast of the flight online, VSS Unity's RocketMotorTwo ignited, burning a rubber-based solid fuel and liquid oxidizer to accelerate the vehicle to just over three times the speed of sound, or Mach 3. Click to view video in a new pop-up window. Piloted by former NASA astronaut (and Virgin Galactic commercial astronaut) Frederick "CJ" Sturckow and Kelly Latimer, a former NASA research pilot, the VMS Eve lofted the VSS Unity to about 46,000 feet (14,000 m) before releasing it to fly alone and fire its engine to begin the climb to space. MDT (1440 GMT) with VSS Unity mounted underneath its carrier aircraft, the WhiteKnightTwo VMS (Virgin MotherShip) Eve, named after Branson's late mother. The 60-minute flight began Sunday at 8:40 a.m.
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It was also the first to carry a full crew complement of two pilots and four mission specialists, including Branson, who was aboard the flight to assess the astronaut experience. The Unity 22 mission was the 22nd flight test for the VSS (Virgin SpaceShip) Unity and fourth crewed spaceflight since 2018. The whole thing was just magical," said Branson. "I think like most, I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid and honestly nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space. "What a day, what a day, what a day, what a day." "I was upside down a few minutes ago, so excuse me," said Branson, soon after landing aboard VSS Unity, as he gathered his thoughts. The flight marked a milestone for the company, which since 2004 has been working to provide space tourism and suborbital research flights to the edge of space. Billionaire business mogul Richard Branson has safely landed back on Earth after joining five of his Virgin Galactic employees on the company's first fully-crewed suborbital flight into space.īranson's "Unity 22" crew touched down aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane at Spaceport America in New Mexico on Sunday (July 11), just an hour after they took off from the same runway.
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