Just now, Virgin Galactic launched their sixth private space mission.
During the Galactic 06 mission, four private passengers—including the first Ukrainian woman to ever reach the last frontier—were transported to suborbital space and back.
“#Galactic06, welcome return to Earth! Soon after landing today, Virgin Galactic wrote in a post on X, “Our pilots, crew, and spaceship have landed safely at Spaceport America, New Mexico.”
Galactic 06 took off from Spaceport America in southwest New Mexico, as mentioned in that post. Around noon EST (1700 GMT; 10 a.m. local time), Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, lifted off from the location, carrying the four-person spacecraft VSS Unity.
At around 45,000 feet (13,700 meters), Eve dropped Unity, and the spacecraft fired up its rocket motor to ascend into suborbital space.
After a brief period of weightlessness and a view of their home planet against the backdrop of space, the passengers of Galactic 06 descended to Earth for a runway touchdown at Spaceport America around ninety minutes after liftoff. (Virgin Galactic posted updates on X during the trip; it did not webcast the mission.)
Prior to Galactic 06, Virgin Galactic exclusively disclosed the passengers’ home countries and/or states without disclosing their identities. According to the company, four of them are from Texas, one is from California, one is Austrian, and the other is from Nevada and Ukraine.
Lina Borozdina, Franz Haider, Neil Kornswiet, and Robie Vaughn all got their names today. Virgin Galactic claims that Borozdina was the first Ukrainian woman to travel into space.
Today, VSS Unity was flown by Commander C.J. Sturckow and pilot Nicola Pecile, while VMS Eve was piloted by Dan Alix and Michael Masucci.
Galactic 06 took off from Spaceport America in southwest New Mexico, as mentioned in that post. Around noon EST (1700 GMT; 10 a.m. local time), Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, lifted off from the location, carrying the four-person spacecraft VSS Unity.
At around 45,000 feet (13,700 meters), Eve dropped Unity, and the spacecraft fired up its rocket motor to ascend into suborbital space.
After a brief period of weightlessness and a view of their home planet against the backdrop of space, the passengers of Galactic 06 descended to Earth for a runway touchdown at Spaceport America around ninety minutes after liftoff. (Virgin Galactic posted updates on X during the trip; it did not webcast the mission.)
Prior to Galactic 06, Virgin Galactic exclusively disclosed the passengers’ home countries and/or states without disclosing their identities. According to the company, four of them are from Texas, one is from California, one is Austrian, and the other is from Nevada and Ukraine.
Lina Borozdina, Franz Haider, Neil Kornswiet, and Robie Vaughn all got their names today. Virgin Galactic claims that Borozdina was the first Ukrainian woman to travel into space.
Today, VSS Unity was flown by Commander C.J. Sturckow and pilot Nicola Pecile, while VMS Eve was piloted by Dan Alix and Michael Masucci.
