TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. (KRQE) – Virgin Galactic successfully completed its third commercial spaceflight and second private astronaut flight on Friday at Spaceport America.
Ken Baxter from the United States, Tim Nash, a British citizen from South Africa, and Adrian Reynard of the United Kingdom were part of the spaceflight on Friday. The three individuals were some of Virgin Galactic’s first paying customers.
The 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.
“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,” said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic.
Galactic 03 was Virgin Galactic’s fourth successful spaceflight in the past four months. The company is now preparing for its next commercial space mission, Galactic 04, which is planned for early October.
