Launch Window opens 02 November 2023

Virgin Galactic, the California-based spaceflight subsidiary of billionaire-cool-guy-knight Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, has announced the window for its upcoming Galactic 05 mission—the company’s sixth spaceflight of 2023 and tenth to date—will open 02 November 2023.

A research endeavor after the fashion of Galactic 01, which was flown at the behest and to the purposes of the Italian Air Force, Galactic 05 stands to reaffirm Virgin Galactic’s commitment to reducing the historical barriers of time and cost historically synonymous with microgravity and space-based research.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier stated: “The pursuit of scientific discovery has driven Virgin Galactic from the beginning, and we’re thrilled to offer a wide breadth of high-quality and reliable access to space-based research. With six flights in six months, our teams have delivered on our turn time objectives for our initial spaceship, VSS Unity. Galactic 05 will be our second commercial human-tended research mission, and insights from this flight will be used to enhance and refine the research capabilities of our future Delta fleet.”

The Galactic 05 crew will comprise:

• Astronaut 020: Dr. Alan Stern, U.S. Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President in Southwest Research Institute’s (SwRI) Space Sector.
• Astronaut 021: Kellie Gerardi, U.S. Payload Specialist and Bioastronautics Researcher for the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS).
• Astronaut 022: Private Astronaut – Franco-Italian nationality.

Stern and Gerardi intend to conduct human-tended research during the suborbital spaceflight. As a former NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, Dr. Stern is a long-time advocate for commercial suborbital research platforms. Sponsored by SwRI, Stern’s spaceflight is, in essence, a training mission for a future NASA suborbital endeavor. Galactic 05 will see Dr. Stern fly a biomedical harness conducive to the collection of human physiological data. He will also carry out practice activities germane to an astronomical experiment to be on the aforementioned, upcoming NASA flight.

Kellie Gerardi, whose flight is sponsored by IIAS, plans to fly three payloads, two of which will evaluate novel healthcare technologies in microgravity conditions by dint of biometric data collected via the so-called Astroskin biomonitoring device. The data will shed light, ostensibly, on the behavior of confined fluids in microgravity.

Speaking on behalf of the Southwest Research Institute, Dr. Stern set forth: “After years of sending machines to conduct research on my behalf, I'm thrilled to be making this maiden spaceflight. What sets this flight apart from others, and which likely represents a new kind of space activity, is that, more than anything else, I will be training – in space – for future space experiments I will be performing with NASA funding. Virgin’s suborbital costs are low enough to open up space training actually in space as a viable opportunity, and that is a game changer."

Gerardi, on behalf of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences, added: “This mission represents the beginning of a new era of access to space for the research community, and the culmination of a personal lifelong dream. I’m grateful for the support and confidence that IIAS continues to place in me, and I’m looking forward to paving the way for our many talented researchers who will follow, using space as a laboratory to benefit humanity.”

Galactic 05 will be operated by VSS Unity Commander Mike Masucci and Pilot Kelly Latimer, VMS Eve Commander Jameel Janjua and Pilot Andy Edgell, and Astronaut Instructor Colin Bennett. Bennett’s work aboard Galactic 05 will complete the in-flight Astronaut Instructor training assessments. On future Virgin Galactic missions, VSS Unity’s fourth cabin seat—historically occupied by the Astronaut Instructor—will be given over to generating additional revenue.

The Galactic 06 mission is expected to launch in January 2024. The planned pause in Virgin Galactic’s launch cadence affords the company’s technical personnel to carry out routine annual vehicle inspections prior to re-commencing standard pre-flight readiness procedures. Galactic 06 is slated to carry four private astronauts.

FMI: www.virgingalactic.com