WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic will conclude its schedule of suborbital spaceflights this yr with a mission in early November whose crew will include a longtime advocate of suborbital research.
The corporate announced Oct. 18 that the subsequent flight of its VSS Unity suborbital spaceplane, Galactic 05, is scheduled for a window that opens Nov. 2 from Spaceport America in Latest Mexico. It is going to be the fifth business flight for the corporate and the sixth flight of Unity this yr, all since late May.
Galactic 05, just like the Galactic 01 mission in June, is described as a research flight by the corporate. It is going to carry amongst its crew two researchers, Alan Stern and Kellie Gerardi. A 3rd customer is described by the corporate only as a Franco-Italian private astronaut.
Stern, an associate vp of Southwest Research Institute’s (SwRI) space science division, will evaluate a harness used for collecting biomedical data in addition to test a mockup of an astronomical camera planned for a future suborbital flight. Gerardi, representing the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS), a research and academic organization, will test a biomonitoring device and collect other biomedical data while also conducting a fluid dynamics experiment.
Stern has been a number one advocate for using business suborbital vehicles like Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo to conduct research more rapidly and fewer expensively than alternative platforms, giving scientists access to several minutes of microgravity and other facets of the space environment. That interest has included running a series of conferences since 2010 dedicated to business suborbital research.
Stern was the primary scientist chosen by NASA in 2020 for an award through the agency’s Flight Opportunities program that might allow him to go on a business suborbital vehicle to conduct research. This flight, though, is funded by SwRI and can function training for that future NASA-funded mission.
“What sets this flight other than others, and which likely represents a brand new sort of space activity, is that greater than the rest I will likely be training — in space — for future space experiments I will likely be performing with NASA funding,” Stern said in a press release. “Virgin’s suborbital costs are low enough to open up space training actually in space as a viable opportunity, and that could be a game changer.”
IIAS signed an agreement with Virgin Galactic in 2021 to fly Gerardi, who has worked with IIAS for several years. “This mission represents the start of a brand new era of access to space for the research community, and the culmination of a private lifelong dream,” she said in a press release. “I’m looking forward to paving the way in which for our many talented researchers who will follow, using space as a laboratory to profit humanity.”
The corporate has highlighted suborbital research in its place application for its vehicles versus space tourism, and one which is potentially more lucrative on a per-seat basis. “We’re thrilled to supply a large breadth of high-quality and reliable access to space-based research,” Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said in an organization statement. “Insights from this flight will likely be used to reinforce and refine the research capabilities of our future Delta fleet.”
The mission will likely be commanded by Mike Masucci with Kelly Latimer as pilot and Colin Bennett because the in-flight astronaut instructor. The corporate said that Galactic 05 will likely be the last to hold an astronaut instructor, with Galactic 06 and subsequent flights carrying 4 private astronaut customers. Colgalzier said in an earnings call in August that the corporate would likely replace the astronaut instructor with a fourth customer “as we move into 2024.”
While Galactic 05 continues a roughly monthly cadence of Virgin Galactic suborbital missions dating back to late May, it is going to even be the last of the yr. The corporate said Galactic 06 will happen in January to provide the corporate time for “routine, planned annual vehicle inspections.”