Unity 25 will constitute “the latest assessment of the complete space system and the astronaut experience before commercial flight service does not open at the end of June“, claimed Virgin Galactic. Unity 25 must be the fifth flight reaching space (according to the definition of the American army: above 80 kilometers of altitude). The proposed trip offers only a few minutes in weightlessness : a standard carrier aircraft takes off from a classic runway, then drops the vesselwhich looks like a large private jet.
It then turns on its engine until it exceeds 80 km in altitude before descending while gliding and landing on the same runway.
The flights take place from the base of Spaceport America, in the New Mexico desert. The Unity 25 crew will consist of two women and two men: Beth Moses (who has served on two previous spaceflights), Jamila Gilbert, Chris Huie and Luke Mays (who has spent several years training astronauts to NASA). Two pilots are also at the controls of the carrier plane and two others in the ship. The first commercial flight, called Galactic 01, will be with passengers from the Italian Air Force.
