Virgin Galactic was established in 2004. Nearly 19 years later, the company’s first commercial space flight took off on Thursday. It was named Galactic 01. The Galactic 01 mission consisted of 6 people. There were 4 crew members and 2 pilots among them. The flight was taken 80 kilometers above the earth from the desert of New Mexico. Heavy rockets are usually used for space flight, but Virgin Galactic has made an aircraft for this.
The company calls this aircraft its ‘mothership’. After taking off from the runway, the ‘mothership’ rises to an altitude of 15,000 feet, where the spaceship separates from the mothership. After separating from the ‘mothership’, the spaceship reaches space moving at three times the speed of sound. According to Virgin Galactic, after reaching the end point, passengers will experience zero gravity for a short period of time. The total flight duration will be 90 minutes, after which, the spaceship will return to Earth and land on a special long runway. At present, it is not known whether the timing or take-off and landing protocol of the incoming flight will be the same as the first flight, or if there will be any changes.
Virgin Galactic is said to have sold 800 tickets for its commercial space flights so far. According to Aljazeera, he sold 600 tickets between 2005 and 2014. Their price was between 2 to 2.5 lakh dollars. Since then 200 more tickets have been sold, costing $450,000 (Rs 3.70 crore) per ticket. Virgin Galactic’s second space flight is expected to take off in August. The space journey of those people who have bought tickets will start from the second flight.
