Virgin Galactic carries third set of tourists to edge of space

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. sent its third crew of paying tourists to the edge of space on Friday, as billionaire Richard Branson’s cosmic adventure firm extended its commercial flights for a third straight month, Report informs via Bloomberg.

The flight marks the latest milestone in Virgin Galactic’s quest to establish a “spaceline for Earth” and surpass rival Blue Origin, which has launched six commercial passenger missions with its New Shepard rocket. However, the New Shepard rocket remains sidelined by a 2022 mishap.

Despite its launch momentum, regular space flights for tourists remains years away. Virgin Galactic doesn’t anticipate turning a profit with flights until the debut of its larger Delta Class spaceships in 2026.

Friday’s Galactic 04 mission took off around 9:40 a.m. local time, the company said in a post on social media site X, with Virgin Galactic’s VMS Eve carrier aircraft hoisting the space plane VSS Unity into the sky from Spaceport America in New Mexico. Roughly 40 minutes later, Unity dropped from the aircraft and rocketed to the edge of space, the company said in another X post.

Galactic 04 comes one month after the company’s previous suborbital tourist flight sent a crew of ticketed civilian tourists to the edge of space and back. Virgin Galactic kicked off its commercial spaceflight operations in late June with a research mission, nearly two decades after the company’s founding.

There were two company pilots, one employee support astronaut, and three spaces-enthusiast passengers on-board: California astronomy educator Ron Rosano, British advertising executive Trevor Beattie and Pakistan-born adventurer Namira Salim.