The two Italian air force colonels and an aerospace engineer from the National Research Council of Italy were due to join their Virgin Galactic instructor and the spaceplane's two pilots on a suborbital ride expected to take the six men about 50 miles above the desert floor., the space tourism venture founded by British billionaire Richard Branson in 2004, as it inaugurates commercial service following several years fraught with development setbacks.
For Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei, designated as commander, the flight aboard the spaceplane, dubbed VSS Unity, is also part of his astronaut training for a future mission to the International Space Station. The gleaming white rocket plane was to be borne aloft at around 11 a.m. EDT attached to the underside of its transport jet, VMS Eve, as the carrier plane takes off from Spaceport America near the New Mexico town of Truth or Consequences.
for 11 weeks while the company was under investigation for deviating from its assigned airspace on ascent during the July 2021 flight. A final crewed test flight to space was conducted with little fanfare five weeks ago. Establishing a solid safety record is critical. An earlier prototype of the Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed during a test flight over California's Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another. Passengers are required to sign a pre-flight waiver acknowledging the risks and lack of government regulation over space tourism.
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