Virgin Galactic Names Crew for First Commercial Space Flight

Facts

On Monday, Virgin Galactic announced the crew for the company’s first commercial space flight, Galactic 01, which is set to launch this week.¹
Col. Walter Villadei and Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi of the Italian Air Force, Pantaleone Carlucci, an engineer from the National Research Council of Italy, and Virgin Galactic astronaut Colin Bennett will be aboard the VSS Unity on June 29.¹
After departing from Spaceport America in New Mexico, the Galactic 01 crew will conduct 13 experiments before, during, and after the flight. They will measure cosmic radiation, test the effects of microgravity on fluids and combustion, and collect medical data.²
Shares in Virgin Galactic were up about 0.1% Monday after declining about 10% in the past week. The stock had increased 30% over the past month in anticipation of the end of the three-year wait for a commercial flight.³
Virgin Galactic is looking forward to opening its flights to tourists in the near future, as it currently has 800 people who are willing to pay up to $450K per flight on a waitlist.⁴
The cash-strapped company also sold $300M of stock in August 2022 and announced plans to sell another $400M of stock in a deal with Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs for "development of its spaceship fleet and infrastructure to scale its commercial operations, and for general corporate purposes."²

Narrative A, as provided by USA Today. Virgin Galactic’s commercial flights are the obvious next step in the adventure tourism industry — even considering the OceanGate submersible disaster. Although regulation is limited, Virgin and similar companies have done their best to assure safety.
Narrative B, as provided by Space. The OceanGate tragedy should be a lesson to the commercial space industry, which needs more safety regulations. There’s plenty of room to simultaneously regulate the industry and nurture innovation. We shouldn’t wait for a space travel tragedy before increasing government oversight.