Watch the Launch

Galactic 06

Circle Image

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Tourism

Suborbital Spaceport America Air launch to Suborbital flight

Sixth commercial Virgin Galactic mission.

Updates

SwGustav • Jan. 27, 2024, 12:58 a.m.

T-0 accurate to the second


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 26, 2024, 6:08 p.m.

SpaceShipTwo has landed.


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 26, 2024, 6:01 p.m.

SpaceShipTwo has been released.


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 26, 2024, 1:53 p.m.

New take-off time.


Cosmic_Penguin • Jan. 24, 2024, 1:41 a.m.

Added launch window.


SpaceShipTwo

Family:
Configuration:

The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.

Specifications
  • Stages
    1
  • Length
    18.0 m
  • Diameter
    8.2 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
    9.0 T
  • Thrust
    310.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    SpaceShipTwo
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    SpaceShipTwo
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

VSS Unity


Active Human Rated Crew On-board: 6 Crew Capacity: 8
Destination: Suborbital
Serial Number: N202VG

VSS Unity, previously referred to as VSS Voyager, is a SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered crewed spaceplane. It is the second SpaceShipTwo to be built and will be used as part of the Virgin Galactic fleet.

SpaceShipTwo Details

Crew


Frederick W. Sturckow

Commander - configurations.Country.None - ( VG )

Status: Active

Date of Birth: Aug. 11, 1961
Age: 64

Nicola Pecile

Pilot - configurations.Country.None - ( VG )

Status: Active

Date of Birth: March 11, 1973
Age: 52

Franz Haider

Passenger - configurations.Country.None - ( VG )

Status: Occasional Spaceflight

Date of Birth: None
Age: None

Lina Borozdina

Passenger - configurations.Country.None - ( VG )

Status: Occasional Spaceflight

Date of Birth: None
Age: None

Neil Kornswiet

Passenger - configurations.Country.None - ( VG )

Status: Occasional Spaceflight

Date of Birth: None
Age: None

Robie Vaughn

Passenger - configurations.Country.None - ( VG )

Status: Occasional Spaceflight

Date of Birth: None
Age: None

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic

(VG)

Founder: Richard Branson Founded: 2004 Successes: 62 Failures: 5 Pending: 1

Agency Type:

Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two.

INFO WIKI

Related News

Arstechnica

Virgin Galactic and the FAA are investigating a dropped pin on last spaceflight

"The FAA is overseeing the Virgin Galactic-led mishap investigation."

SpaceNews

Virgin Galactic investigating dropped pin on most recent suborbital flight

Virgin Galactic said Feb. 5 it is investigating why a pin fell from the aircraft used by its VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane on its most recent flight last month, adding that the incident did not pose a safety risk to those on board.

SpaceNews

Virgin Galactic launches four private astronauts as it prepares to end Unity flights

Virgin Galactic conducted its first suborbital mission of 2024 on Jan. 26 as the company prepares end flights of its current spaceplane.

CNBC

Virgin Galactic stock surges nearly 20% after announcing plan for cost savings

Virgin Galactic plans to pause spaceflight operations next year to focus resources on developing its next-generation Delta-class spacecraft, the company announced Wednesday.

Air launch to Suborbital flight

Spaceport America


Long March 3B/E
Success
5 days, 16 hours ago
Fengyun-4C
Launch Complex 2 (LC-2) - Xichang Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

China's geostationary meteorological satellite program FY-4 (Feng Yun 4) is the second generation of chinese geostationary meteorological satellites.


Long March 8A
Success
6 days, 9 hours ago
SatNet LEO Group 17
Commercial LC-1 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
6 days, 18 hours ago
Obzor-R No.1
43/4 (43R) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Assignment of payloads to this launch is uncertain. The Russian Obzor-R satellite is a planned X-band radar earth observation satellite desi…


LVM-3 (GSLV Mk III)
Success
1 week, 1 day ago
BlueBird Block 2 #1
Satish Dhawan Space Centre Second Launch Pad - Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India

AST SpaceMobile’s Block 2 BlueBird satellites are designed to deliver up to 10 times the bandwidth capacity of the BlueBird Block 1 satellites, requi…


Long March 12A
Success
1 week, 2 days ago
Demo Flight
Long March 12A Pad - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

First test launch of CASC/SAST’s Long March 12A rocket, with a dummy payload. The rocket’s 1st stage attempted to land on a landing pad about 300 km …


HANBIT-Nano
Failure
1 week, 2 days ago
Spaceward
HANBIT Pad - Alcântara Space Center, Federative Republic of Brazil

Maiden orbital launch attempt for the South Korean start-up Innospace and its HANBIT-Nano small launch vehicle. Onboard this flight are five small sa…


H3-22
Failure
1 week, 3 days ago
Michibiki 5 (QZS-5)
Yoshinobu Launch Complex LP-2 - Tanegashima Space Center, Japan

QZSS (Quasi Zenith Satellite System) is a Japanese satellite navigation system operating from inclined, elliptical geosynchronous orbits to achieve o…


Electron
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
The Wisdom God Guides (iQPS Launch 6)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Synthetic aperture radar Earth observation satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company iQPS.


New Shepard
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
NS-37
West Texas Suborbital Launch Site/ Corn Ranch - Corn Ranch, Van Horn, TX, USA

NS-37 is the 16th crewed flight for the New Shepard program and the 37th in the New Shepard program's history.


Long March 5
Success
1 week, 4 days ago
TJSW-23
101 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

Chinese classified satellite claimed to be for communication technology test purposes. Actual mission not known.