spacetoday.net: Virgin Galactic performs first commercial suborbital flight

Posted: Sat, Jul 8, 2023, 1:28 PM ET (1728 GMT)
Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial suborbital spaceflight June 29. The company's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane, VSS Unity, separated from its mothership aircraft at 11:29 am EDT (1529 GMT) and fired its hybrid engine for one minute, reaching a peak altitude of 85.1 kilometers before gliding back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The flight, called Galactic 01, carried three Italian payload specialists conducting research as well as a Virgin Galactic employee in the cabin, along with two pilots. The company said the flight went as expected. Virgin Galactic plans to start monthly flights of Unity carrying private astronauts in August. Despite the successful flight, Virgin Galactic shares fell more than 10% in trading that day.