Virgin Galactic performs last commercial flight of VSS Unity
Posted: Sun, Jun 16, 2024, 10:03 AM ET (1403 GMT)
Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane made its final commercial flight June 8 as the company moves on to a new generation of vehicles. Unity, attached to its VMS Eve aircraft, took off from Spaceport America at 10:31 am EDT (1431 GMT) and was released from the plane nearly an hour later. Unity climbed to an altitude of 87.5 kilometers before gliding to a landing back at the spaceport. The vehicle carried three private astronauts and a Turkish researcher. The flight was the seventh commercial spaceflight for Unity and twelfth overall, but also the last as the company will retire Unity to devote its resources on the new Delta class of vehicles intended to fly more frequently and less expensively than Unity. Virgin Galactic says it is on track to start flying Delta vehicles commercially in 2026.
Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane made its final commercial flight June 8 as the company moves on to a new generation of vehicles. Unity, attached to its VMS Eve aircraft, took off from Spaceport America at 10:31 am EDT (1431 GMT) and was released from the plane nearly an hour later. Unity climbed to an altitude of 87.5 kilometers before gliding to a landing back at the spaceport. The vehicle carried three private astronauts and a Turkish researcher. The flight was the seventh commercial spaceflight for Unity and twelfth overall, but also the last as the company will retire Unity to devote its resources on the new Delta class of vehicles intended to fly more frequently and less expensively than Unity. Virgin Galactic says it is on track to start flying Delta vehicles commercially in 2026.
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