Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity successfully carried its crew, including its billionaire founder, into space.
Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its first crewed spaceflight that saw founder Richard Branson and his team touch down safely at the purpose-built commercial spaceport, Spaceport America, on Sunday. It was VSS Unity’s fourth spaceflight and first test flight with a full crew in the cabin, which included Virgin Galactic chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett, and VP of government affairs and research operations Sirisha Bandla, in addition to the company’s founder. The flight was the fourth rocket-powered spaceflight by Virgin Galactic and the 22nd test flight of VSS Unity. VSS Unity achieved a speed of Mach 3 after being released from the mothership, VMS Eve, and reached space at an altitude of 53.
