Virgin Galactic Carries its First Private Passenger on Suborbital Spaceflight

Virgin Galactic, a space tourism company founded by Richard Branson, has launched its first private-paying tourist to the edge of space. The mission flown August 10, 2023, dubbed Galactic 02, was the company's seventh spaceflight, second commercial spaceflight and third spaceflight this year, according to the firm.

The spacecraft, VSS Unity, took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico shortly after 11 a.m. ET, carried by unique Scaled Composites-manufactured jet-powered carrier plane, VMS Eve. At an altitude of about 44,300 feet, Eve released Unity, which then fired its own rocket motor and ascended to suborbital space.

The six passengers experienced several minutes of weightlessness before gliding back to the runway for a nominal landing, according to Virgin Galactic.

Among the passengers were a former British Olympian, Jon Goodwin, who bought his ticket 18 years ago and is the second person with Parkinson's disease to fly to space; a mother-daughter duo from Antigua, Keisha Schahaff and Anastasia Mayers, who won their seats through a charity fundraiser; and Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor, who oversaw the mission from inside the cabin. VSS Unity's pilots were retired USAF and NASA test pilot Kelly Latimer and former NASA astronaut CJ Sturckow.

The flight marks an important step for Virgin Galactic in its quest to commercialize space travel and execute its business plan. The company has a backlog of about 800 customers who have paid between $200,000 and $450,000 per seat to fly on future missions. The effort has been delayed by a fatal accident early in the program and remains far behind schedule.

Recent operations appear to suggest that many of the past problems are resolved and the company says it plans to fly a monthly operating tempo going forward with a mission dubbed Galactic 03 on track for launch in September 2023.