On June 29th, Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight took its first customers into space. It is not the first company to do this, but we are observing a trend that this type of business is gradually becoming more common.

This is not the first time that billionaire Richard Branson’s company has traveled into space, but it is the first time it has done so with tourists, specifically with the Italian Air Force as its first customer.

There were four passengers aboard the VSS Unity spacecraft: two senior officers of the Aeronautica Militare, the Italian air force, an engineer from the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and an employee of Virgin Galactic who accompanied them, plus the two pilots who operated the spacecraft.

The trip has been cataloged as successful, however, there is controversy about whether 80 km altitude is really the barrier to cross to reach space, some argue that it is 100 KM, however the U.S. military maintains that this is the barrier.

The truth is that weightlessness was perceived and during that period of time an Italian flag was unfurled.

Unlike what we are used to, it did not take off from a rocket and a space platform, it was from a plane on a runway that is in the first spaceport in the United States, in the desert of New Mexico, the huge plane took off at 8:30 am on a conventional runway: 30 am on a conventional runway, after an hour of flight at about 15 km altitude released the ship, it turned on its engine and accelerated vertically for a few minutes, until it passed 80 km altitude, were a few moments in space, and after that the ship glided back to the spaceport, to land on the runway.

Virgin Galactic is betting on a somewhat different route than its private competitors Space X and Blue Origin are taking, The idea of Virgin Galactic is to have monthly flights, the company reports that already has about 800 customers who have their ticket to go to space, if you are interested in going, the ticket is in 450,000 dollars. Well, the exorbitant price will obviously mean that only a few will be able to access the trip.

For Virgin Galactic, this first flight had a scientific vocation as some experiments were performed on board, such as the behavior of liquid in weightlessness, the body reaction of the passengers, among some other small experiments.

According to CEO Michael Coglazier, “Virgin Galactic’s research flight will open a new era of repeated, reliable access to space for more government and research institutions.”
We could say that the flight was a success, and there is already a second mission for August, Virgin Galactic is not the first company that makes suborbital flights, also makes them the company of Jeff Bezos Blue Origin that has already sent 32 people to suborbital flights, Space X is testing its rockets, since it is aiming a little higher.

But tell us your opinion about these flights, do you think they really help to democratize space? Or is it just another billionaire’s venture?