Virgin Galactic's Unity 25 spaceflight in photos (gallery)
Eight crew members will participate in the spaceflight, which is the first for Virgin Galactic since July 2021.
Virgin Galactic is ready for its first spaceflight in nearly two years.
Virgin Galactic will send its next crew to space no earlier than Thursday (May 25) at 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT) from Spaceport America in New Mexico. While the events will not be livestreamed, you can likely watch on Virgin Galactic's Twitter feed.
Eight crew members will participate, all Virgin Galactic employees. It's the fifth time the company has ventured into space and the first since July 11, 2021, when Virgin Group founder Richard Branson was one of the passengers. (The company has been upgrading and testing its vehicles since then.)
The spaceflight will see two pilots of the carrier plane VMS Eve bring the spaceplane VSS Unity to an altitude of roughly 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). Eve will then release Unity, whose two pilots will use the spacecraft's rocket motor to fly four crew members beyond 50 miles (80 kilometers), high enough to reach space by some definitions.
Virgin Galactic has said the flight, known as Unity 25, will be the last test ahead of starting commercial service. Follow along with the flight and its crew members in the gallery below.
Related: Meet the 8 people flying on Virgin Galactic's 5th spaceflight on Thursday
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Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., was a staff writer in the spaceflight channel between 2022 and 2024 specializing in Canadian space news. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years from 2012 to 2024. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House, leading world coverage about a lost-and-found space tomato on the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?" (ECW Press, 2022) is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams.