Virgin Galactic Completes VSS Unity's Final Commercial Flight

While Virgin Atlantic celebrated its anniversary, Virgin Galactic reached the end of its VSS Unity commercial flight programme. On 08/06/2024, the company completed its Galactic 07 mission from Spaceport America, marking the spacecraft's final commercial flight. The mission was Virgin Galactic's 12th spaceflight overall, its seventh commercial mission and its second spaceflight of 2024. The flight carried four passengers, including Turkish research astronaut Tuva Cihangir Atasever, who conducted scientific experiments during the suborbital journey. The three private astronauts were Anand Sadhwani from California, Irving Pergament from New York and Giorgio Manenti from Italy. VSS Unity was commanded by Nicola Pecile, with Jameel Janjua serving as pilot. The mission also carried five research payloads, including experiments associated with Purdue University and the University of California, Berkeley. The successful completion of Galactic 07 ended VSS Unity's commercial operations following a series of test, research and passenger missions. The spacecraft had previously carried Richard Branson on the Unity 22 mission on 11/07/2021, when he joined a fully crewed test flight ahead of Virgin Galactic's commercial service launch in 2023. The conclusion of Unity's operations allowed the company to redirect resources toward developing its next generation of spacecraft.