The SpaceShipTwo vehicle landed safely at Spaceport America after the 2021-07-11 Unity 22 flight.
The late September Unity flight is for the Italian Air Force and is expected to produce about $2,000,000 in revenue for Virgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic plans one more test flight of its current SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, before entering a maintenance period, with that flight scheduled for late September 2021.
Virgin Galactic designated the 2021-07-11 flight as the Unity 22 mission.
VSS Unity performed a second flight beyond 80 km in February 2019.
Virgin Galactic completed electronic modifications to VSS Unity and successfully tested them on the 2021-05-22 flight.
VSS Unity reached Mach 2 at 00:30 after engine ignition and Mach 3 at 00:57.
VSS Unity reached an altitude of 85.9 km during the 2021-07-11 Unity 22 mission.
Apogee of Unity 22 was attained at 282,000 feet.
Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations at Virgin Galactic, performed a plant experiment from the University of Florida on Unity 22 through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program to evaluate human-tended research.
The 2021-07-11 takeoff of WhiteKnightTwo and VSS Unity was delayed by 90 minutes because of overnight weather that slowed launch preparations.
VSS Unity and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier took off from Spaceport America in New Mexico on 2021-07-11 at 10:40 a.m. Eastern.
VSS Unity glided back to Spaceport America and landed on the runway at 11:38 a.m. Eastern to complete the Unity 22 mission.
Dave Mackay piloted VSS Unity on its 2021-05-22 flight from Spaceport America.
Dave Mackay and Mike Masucci piloted VSS Unity on the 2021-07-11 Unity 22 mission.
The astronaut crew of Unity 22 included Pilot Dave Mackay, Pilot Michael Masucci, Lead Ops Engineer Coplin Bennet, Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses, and Sirisha Bandla.
Virgin Galactic upgraded VSS Unity’s horizontal stabilizer after the February 2019 flight damaged that component.
The flight was conducted by Virgin Galactic with the VMS Eve carrier plane and the VSS Unity 22 space plane.
VSS Unity reached the company’s defined boundary of space (80.5 km / 80 km) on a December 2018 flight from the Mojave Air and Space Port.
The 2021-05-22 VSS Unity flight cleared the final test items required for the FAA to allow SpaceShipTwo to carry people other than company employees.