This is the first manned spaceflight ever launched from New Mexico.
In the desert of New Mexico, lies Spaceport America, which until today, had never launched an actual spaceflight. All that changed on May 22nd, 2021, when Virgin Galactic successfully launched there third suborbital spaceflight using the VSS Unity, a SpaceShipTwo vehicle.
This flight is the latest success in the test campaign for the VSS Unity, which has taken nearly 5 years. They have experienced many delays during the test campaign, partially because they have been trying to remain cautious.
The VSS Unity
The VSS Unity is unlike any other spacecraft. It is a suborbital space plane designed for space tourists. The VSS Unity takes off on the underbelly of a WhiteKnightTwo airplane. Once it is flown up to 44,000 feet, the VSS Unity is dropped, a few seconds later, the hybrid rocket engine ignites. The VSS Unity then propels itself up to the edge of space, where the 6 space tourists onboard can experience a few minutes of weightlessness. After that, the VSS Unity re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and lands gently on a runway. On this flight, there weren't any space tourists, but there were a few scientific experiments onboard that were added by NASA. Virgin Galactic plans on sending wealthy space tourists to suborbital space, starting in 2022. 600 people have already reserved rides to space, which cost $250,000 a piece.
Blue Origin
Sometime this year or next year, a company called Blue Origin plans to begin providing a similar service using their New Shepard spacecraft.
New Shepard is named for Alan Shepard, the first American in space. New Shepard is the name for both a space capsule and the rocket that it launches on. It is designed to accomplish a goal similar to Virgin Galactic's, but in a very different way. New Shepard will launch tourists atop the booster rocket, then the capsule will separate and coast up to the edge of space. The booster rocket will then propulsively land a few minutes before the capsule touches down using parachutes.
A few weeks ago, Blue Origin announced that they were auctioning off a seat on the first tourist flight of New Shepard. If you have a few million dollars sitting around, then feel free to bid for a chance to be on that historic mission.
It's so exciting that we have 2 unique companies both working on systems to launch space tourists. I hope that both of them succeed and safely launch hundreds of passengers.