Virgin Galactic's Final Flight of VSSUnity and Future Plans

TapTechNews, June 9th, Virgin Galactic carried out the spaceflight mission code-named "Galactic07" on June 8th, sending 6 people into suborbital space, and this was also the last flight of the VSSUnity space plane.

The VSSUnity attached to the belly of its mothership VMSEve took off from SpaceportAmerica in New Mexico at 10:31 am Eastern US time. After an hour of climbing, it separated and ignited the rocket engine when it reached an altitude of 44,527 feet (about 13582 meters), sending two pilots and four passengers into space and back. TapTechNews noticed that this flight reached the highest altitude of 54.4 miles (about 87.5 kilometers), and it was the seventh commercial spaceflight carried out by Virgin Galactic using the VSSUnity. The VSSUnity is about to be retired to make way for the new "Delta" -class spaceship that the company plans to launch in 2026.

The VSSUnity space plane returned to SpaceportAmerica at 11:41 am Eastern US time, marking Virgin Galactic's seventh commercial spaceflight and twelfth manned spaceflight. Virgin Galactic has used the Unity space plane for a total of 32 flights, including non-space test flights.

The Unity will no longer carry out flight missions, and Virgin Galactic will ground the SpaceShipTwo series to which the VSSUnity belongs and switch to developing a new type of "Delta" -class spaceship, which is designed to achieve more frequent flights. Mike Moses, president of Virgin Galactic, said at the press conference, "The "Delta" -class spaceship is planned to build at least two and can fly twice a week, which is eight times the flight frequency of the" SpaceShipTwo". Moses said that by 2026, the new fleet would transport 750 passengers into space each year, which would exceed the total number of people who have entered space in the 60-year history of space exploration so far.