US sub-orbital space tourism company Virgin Galactic successfully executed, on Sunday, the first test flight of its ‘Virgin Space Ship Unity’ (VSS Unity) with the spaceplane carrying into space a full crew in its cabin. That flight was also VSS Unity’s 22nd test flight. The test flight crew included Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson and company VP government affairs and research operations Sirisha Bandla. (Although Branson is British, for legal and practical reasons Virgin Galactic was incorporated in the US.) The other members of the test flight crew were pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, lead flight operations engineer Colin Bennett and chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses. The WhiteKnightTwo (‘Virgin Mother Ship [VMS] Eve’) carrier and launch aircraft was crewed by pilots Kelly Latimer and CJ Sturckow.
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