TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (KRQE) – After more than a decade of promises, speculation, hype and delays, Virgin Galactic is aiming to become the first private company to take civilians to space this weekend. Sunday, the company is planning to make its first fully crewed space flight from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.
KRQE News 13 will have live streaming coverage of the suborbital space flight attempt Sunday morning, July 11, 2021. KRQE Digital Anchor Chris McKee will be hosting coverage starting at 6:40 a.m. MDT and continuing on throughout the morning.
The space flight is expected to begin taking off at 7 a.m. MDT from Spaceport America, roughly 30 miles southwest of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The entire flight is expected to take 90 minutes from takeoff to touchdown.
Get involved in the conversation! Message Chris McKee on Twitter at @ChrisMcKeeTV, or use the hashtag #HeyChris to send any questions or comments during the broadcast.
How will the space flight work?
Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft will begin its takeoff from a roughly two-mile-long runway at the Spaceport. A carrier aircraft called the VMS Eve (Virgin Mothership Eve) will take the crewed spacecraft, the VSS Unity (VSS (Virgin Space Ship Unity,) roughly 50,000 feet (~9.4 miles) into the air.
At altitude, the VMS Eve carrier aircraft will release the VSS Unity. After the spaceship drops several hundred feet, pilots will ignite a rocket motor on the VSS Unity, propelling the spaceship at nearly three times the speed of sound in a near-vertical climb.
Once the spaceship reaches an altitude of roughly 50 miles above Earth, pilots will stop the rocket motor while the spaceship hovers in microgravity. After several minutes of experiencing weightlessness, the VSS Unity will descend back down to Earth, landing at Spaceport America.
Who will be on the spaceship?
Six people will be onboard the VSS Unity’s Sunday flight, including two pilots and crew members. Dave Mackay will serve as the chief pilot on the flight, while Michael “Sooch” Masucci will serve as a co-pilot. Virgin Galactic Founder Richard Branson will be on board the crew, along with Virgin Galactic employes Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla. CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer will be the two pilots flying the VMS Eve.
Of the crew, Beth Moses was the first person to fly in the customer cabin of the spaceship during a test flight in 2019. That flight made Moses the first civilian to fly as a passenger on a privately owned spacecraft. All of the passengers onboard Virgin Galactic’s Sunday flight are employees of the company.
While the company has more than 600 people who’ve paid for a reservation on board a Virgin Galactic flight, it is not expected to carry paying passengers until next year. In a recently news release, the company said, “two additional test flights are planned before (Virgin Galactic) expects to commence commercial service in 2022.”
Sunday’s flight in New Mexico is named Unity 22, marking the 22nd mission the spaceship will have flown. Virgin Galactic last successfully tested the spaceship in New Mexico on May 22, 2021.
