Virgin Galactic Unity 21

Virgin Galactic Unity 21 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. 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.

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.

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