Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) has taken off on its first commercial flight to the edge of space.
Its VMS Eve mothership took off from its New Mexico base at just before 9am local time, with its Unity rocket containing the company's first three paying passengers carried beneath its wings for what it is calling 'Galactic 01’ mission.
We have #Galactic01 take-off from @Spaceport_NM! Our livestream will begin shortly, around 9 am MDT | 11 am EDT, just prior to spaceship release. WATCH: https://t.co/5UalYTpQxj pic.twitter.com/h4OEginD8O
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) June 29, 2023
Unity then unclipped and fired its own rockets to fly its suborbital altitude, reaching an apogee of 279,000 feet, or 85 kilometres, above the Earth’s surface.
Rising aboard were the space tourism company's first paying customers, from the Italian Airforce on a scientific research mission for the National Research Council of Italy.
Following several minutes in zero-gravity, the rocket returned to Earth and landed safely back in New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic live-streamed the flight from around 9am local time, just prior to the Unity spaceship's release.
A second commercial mission is expected in "early August", carrying its first members of the general paying public, with monthly commercial flights planned thereafter.
Virgin Galactic, which was co-founded by Sir Richard Branson, has sold roughly 800 tickets for these commercial flights at prices starting at US$450,000 apiece.
.@VirginGalactic has completed its inaugural commercial spaceflight from Spaceport America, carrying 13 research payloads and 3 crew from the Italian Air Force & the National Research Council of Italy to space. Ben fatto #Galactic01 https://t.co/7Yh56FGpIU pic.twitter.com/C6h04A9smV
— Virgin (@Virgin) June 29, 2023
"Che volo fantastic [what a fantastic flight]," said Branson, celebrating the milestone in a tweet.
The Italian Airforce hailed its first suborbital flight and said the completion of scientific research and experimentation of the consequences of microgravity on the human body, with the crew conducting experiments in medicine, advanced materials, fluid physics and physiology.
** Updated details, adds tweets **