Virgin Galactic announces Galactic 05, its seventh flight of the year

On November 2, Virgin Galactic plans to fly its next sub-orbital spaceflight on is SpaceShipTwo spaceplane platform. This mission, like Galactic 01, is a research flight rather than a joy ride for the ultra-wealthy.

Virgin Galactic prepares for six spaceflight of 2023

Virgin Galactic has been on an absolute tear since beginning commercial flights this summer. Galactic 05, despite its name, will be the space tourism company’s six flight in six months and seventh for the entire year. This flight continues Virgin Galactic’s quest to launch monthly as it works through its backlog of customers.

Galactic 05 will fly a full crew of six to the edges of space. Its mission won’t be a joy ride for the ultra-wealthy but a research flight for institutions looking for a more direct way to access micro-gravity research. The crew members of Galactic 05 are:

• Mike Masucci – Commander
• Kelly Latimer – Pilot
• Colin Bennett – Astronaut Instructor
• Dr. Alan Stern – US Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President in Southwest Research Institute’s Space Sector
• Kellie Gerardi – US Payload Specialist and Bioastronautics Researcher for the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences
• Unnamed Private Astronaut – Franco-Italian nationality

With VSS Unity conversion into a sub-orbital space lab, Dr. Stern and Gerard will both tend to research experiments assigned to them by their respective organizations. Dr. Stern’s mission is also a test flight for NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program which provides researcher’s will sub-orbital flights for science missions that align with the agency’s goals. Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are part of this program but Virgin Galactic is the first to demonstrate the ability to send researchers into micro-gravity, not just the science payloads.

Dr. Stern, former NASA Associate Administrator of the Science Mission Directorate and principle investigator for the New Horizons space probe to Pluto, he will conduct two experiments for the SwRI. He will wear a biometric monitoring harness through the duration of the flight and second he will train for two NASA funded experiments on a future Virgin Galactic flight. Interesting enough, that means that he’ll use a foam mockup of a handheld Xybion wide-field visible and ultraviolet imager that saw use on the Space Shuttle. Not sure why that shocks me but hey it’s there money not mine.

Gerardi will perform three experiments on her time in micro-gravity. Two of those experiments will be worn and monitored through flight. The first one being a glucose monitor and the second a Astroskin biomonitoring device. Her third experiment will be to study how confined fluids act in microgravity to help further technology for life support systems and syringes that can be used in space.

Virgin Galactic has not shared any details as to what the third customer on this flight will be doing. It could mean they are not conducting any research missions and are just a long time ticket holder. This is in-line for Virgin Galactic’s leisure flights in the last few months – not sharing customer details until after the flight.

According the company’s press release, this will be the final flight of an Astronaut Instructor. This means future flights will see four paying customers rather than just three. Virgin Galactic calls this the final flight of the in-flight Astronaut Instructor training assessments.

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Still waiting for Blue Origin’s return to flight

With Virgin Galactic’s success continuing to pile up, we have to wonder, where is Blue Origin in all of this? We have still heard nothing from the company as to when Blue Origin will return flying is sub-orbital rocket.

Galactic 05 will be the first sub-orbital flight of privately funded researchers, something that we aren’t sure Blue Origin is even capable of doing with New Shepard. Virgin Galactic as also reach a launch cadence that Blue Origin has never been able to achieve. All this with the secretive company not sharing anything that is going on with its program.

It seems weird, at least to me, that while its biggest competitor is now lapping them, Blue Origin has nothing to share. Is that because they don’t have any good news to share? I’m not sure, because they haven’t given us anything.