Virgin Galactic Unity 21

Virgin Galactic Unity 21[1] was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity which took place on 22 May 2021, piloted by David Mackay and co-piloted by Frederick Sturckow. It was the first human spaceflight from the state of New Mexico.[2] It was operated by Virgin Galactic, a private company led by Richard Branson which intends to conduct space tourism flights in the future. Unity 21 was the first human spaceflight to be launched from Spaceport America.[3][4]

Virgin Galactic Unity 21
VSS Unity in February 2016
Mission typeCrewed suborbital spaceflight
OperatorVirgin Galactic
Apogee89.23 kilometres (55.44 miles)
Spacecraft properties
SpacecraftVSS Unity
Spacecraft typeSpaceShipTwo
ManufacturerThe Spaceship Company
Crew
Members
Start of mission
Launch date22 May 2021, 15:26 UTC
Launch siteSpaceport America Runway 34
Deployed fromVMS Eve
End of mission
Landing date22 May 2021
Landing siteSpaceport America Runway 16
 

Reaching an apogee of 55.45 mi (89.24 km), the flight satisfied the United States definition of spaceflight (50 mi (80.47 km)), but fell short of the Kármán line (100 km (62.14 mi)), the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale definition.

Crew
Position Astronaut
Pilot United Kingdom David Mackay
Second spaceflight
Co-pilot United States Frederick Sturckow
Sixth spaceflight

Flights are currently only by U.S Convention.

Flight

On 22 May 2021, Unity's mother ship VMS Eve carried it into flight in a parasite configuration. At 15:26 UTC,[5] Unity was drop launched. Pilots MacKay and Sturckow flew Unity at a maximum speed of Mach 3 to a maximum altitude of over 89.23 km (292,700 ft). This altitude surpassed the 50-mile limit used in the United States to denote the limit of space, but fell short of the Kármán line. Both craft landed safely afterwards.

References
  1. "Virgin Galactic on Twitter". 22 May 2021. Unity21 made a beautiful ascent to apogee over Spaceport America, New Mexico.
  2. "Virgin Galactic Completes First Human Spaceflight from Spaceports America, New Mexico". 22 May 2021. Archived from the original on 22 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  3. "Virgin Galactic launches third successful spaceflight". CNN. 22 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  4. "Virgin Galactic on twitter". 22 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021. Space is too good not to share. Our proof is in the incredible views of Earth aboard #Unity21.
  5. McDowell, Jonathan (22 May 2021). "Jonathan McDowell on Twitter". Retrieved 22 May 2021.
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