Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) completed the company’s second private astronaut flight, ‘Galactic 03’ on September 8th at 8:34 a.m.— the mission flew three of Virgin Galactic’s first customers.
‘Galactic 03’ was the company’s fourth successful spaceflight in the past four months and the third flight of Virgin Galactic’s inaugural commercial spaceflight season. The flight followed the company’s first research mission in June and first private astronaut mission in August.
Onboard ’Galactic 03’:
Astronaut 014 Ken Baxter from the United States of America
Astronaut 015 Timothy Nash from South Africa
Astronaut 016 Adrian Reynard from the United Kingdom
Spaceship VSS Unity was piloted by Commander Nicola Pecile and Pilot Michael Masucci; Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses was also on board. Mothership VMS Eve was piloted by Commander Jameel Janjua and Pilot Kelly Latimer.
The company will now proceed with post-flight inspections and analysis in preparation for the next commercial space mission, ‘Galactic 04,’ which is planned for early October.
“What a thrilling day for our three new private astronauts and the entire team at Virgin Galactic. It’s an honor to see our ‘Galactic 03’ crew realize their lifelong dreams of spaceflight as they inspire our manifest of Future Astronauts. Each successful flight shows how powerful and personally transformative space travel can be, and we look forward to scaling our operations and making space travel more accessible to people around the world.” — Michael Colglazier, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Galactic