Space Tourism Agency Virgo Galatic, Billionaire Richard Branson made his first business trip on Thursday, after successfully completing a 90-minute journey to reach The boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.
The flight took off from Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport America in southern New Mexico (USA) at 10:30 am (2:30 GMT), and an hour later the VSS Unity spacecraft separated from its mother ship VMS E. The rest of the journey will continue at an altitude of 13.7 km.
The VSS unit fired its engines for about 60 seconds, allowing it to propel itself to the maximum altitude achieved on its mission, about 85 kilometers. Subspace reaches the edges of space.
The ship was commanded Mike MasucciThis mission marked his fourth spaceflight and was piloted by a former member of the Italian Air Force. Nicole BasileNow working for Virgin Galactic, he completed his first space flight today.
Aboard the VSS Unity, former astronaut Colin Bennett and the Italians also traveled Walter Villadei and Angelo LandolfiEngineer Pantaleone Carlucci from the Italian Air Force, as well as from the Italian National Research Council, was in charge of conducting 13 experiments in a microgravity environment.
The Italian flight is the result of an agreement signed between Virgin Galactic and the country’s government in 2019.
Called Galactic01, the mission involved Kelly Latimer and Jameel Janjua, commander and pilot, respectively, of VMS Eve.
According to specialized media, tickets to fly on Unity cost about 450,000 dollars (414,000 euros).
