Galactic 04 Mission Lands Safely

Virgin Galactic, the California-based spaceflight subsidiary of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, announced on 06 October 2023 that its Galactic 04 mission—the company’s fifth manned space-flight in five-months—had been successfully completed and the three private astronauts borne spaceward aboard such had returned safely to Earth.

Virgin Galactic asserts its unbroken string of successful spaceflights evinces the company’s ability to deliver safe, repeatable space-travel and a transformative customer experience.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier stated: Our teams in New Mexico and California have delivered on our monthly spaceflight objectives. Three new astronauts journeyed to space today and brought back incredible memories and stories of their experience above the Earth. These early missions with our initial ship, VSS Unity, have informed and confirmed the design and maintenance objectives for our Delta class spaceships, and the production tooling for those ships is on track to commence later in the fourth quarter.”

The Galactic 04 mission’s crew of private astronauts comprised:

• Virgin Astronaut 017: Ron Rosano of the United States of America.
• Virgin Astronaut 018: Trevor Beattie of the United Kingdom.
• Virgin Astronaut 019: Namira Salim of Pakistan. Alternately a resident of the United Arab Emirates and Monaco, Ms. Salim was the first Pakistani to travel into space.

The Galactic 04 mission was operated by C.J. Sturckow and Kelly Latimer, who piloted Virgin Space-Ship (VSS) Unity to orbit; and Jameel Janjua and Nicola Pecile, who piloted Virgin Mother-Ship (VMS) Eve. Chief astronaut instructor duties were seen to by Beth Moses.

Galactic 04 saw VMS Eve, a four-engine, twin-fuselage, twin-empennage behemoth named for Evette Branson, Sir Richard’s mother, lumber skyward from Virgin Galactic’s New Mexico Spaceport America facility at 09:28 MDT.

Slung beneath Eve’s center-wing section, VSS Unity and the three aforementioned private astronauts constrained their enthusiasm through an altitude of 44,341-feet, at which Unity separated uneventfully from Eve, dropped free of the massive mother-ship, and fired its hybrid rocket engine.

Accelerating to Mach 2.95, Unity climbed heavenward, reaching a 54-mile (285,120-foot) apogee and drifting awhile at space’s edge.

Unity’s return to Earth was nominal—a term denoting perfection in the clipped argot of spaceflight—culminating in a nicely-executed, 10:25 MDT landing back at Spaceport America.

Virgin Galactic personnel are currently about the business of collecting telemetry data from and conducting post-flight inspections of the aforementioned vehicles in preparation for the Galactic 05 mission, the launch window for which has yet to be announced.

Recent successes notwithstanding, Virgin Galactic’s has been an arduous evolution from concept to countdown. In 2004, Sir Richard Branson somewhat prematurely declared Virgin Galactic’s first paying passengers would journey spaceward in 2007. Fourteen years thereafter, Virgin Galactic made its 2021 inaugural flight, which unbeknownst to many, drifted dangerously off-course, compelling the mission’s pilots to heroic feats of improvisation by which an embarrassing emergency landing was precluded—just.

In July 2022, Virgin Galactic announced the signing of a long-term lease for a new final-assembly manufacturing facility for its next-generation Delta class spaceships, which are slated to serve as the company’s workhorse vehicle for near-future spaceflight operations. The first Delta class ships are expected to commence revenue-generating payload flights in late 2025 before progressing to passenger-carrying space tourism flights in 2026.

In the near-term, Virgin Galactic will continue to operate its Unity platform—the selfsame vehicle in which all nine of the company’s excursions to space have been undertaken.

Provisioned with a fleet of Delta class ships, Branson and his faithful believe Virgin Galactic can maintain a profitable cadence of four-hundred yearly space missions.

Passenger flights aboard Virgin Galactic’s Delta class are expected to sell for an eye-watering $450,000 per-seat. Customers will be required to make an initial deposit of $150,000—about $25,000 of which is nonrefundable—to hold their respective spots.

Despite Branson’s confidence in his company’s business model, investors have grown increasingly skeptical of Virgin Galactic’s profit-turning potential. In 2021, following Branson’s trip to space aboard the company’s inaugural flight, the publicly-traded company’s stock shot to $55.91 per-share. In 2022, however, after flying no customers to space, the company reported a net loss of $500-million.

At 17:30 EDT on 06 October, five-hours after Galactic 04 had touched down safely in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic stock had gained 6¢ on Wall Street, to close at $1.68-per-share.

FMI: www.virgingalactic.com