Virgin Galactic announces January commercial spaceflight

Virgin Galactic's spaceship on the Unity 25 spaceflight
Virgin Galactic
Headshot of Greg Rose
by Greg Rose
20 December 2023

The flight window for Virgin Galactic’s latest mission, ‘Galactic 06’, will open on 26 January, 2024.

This will be the company’s 11th spaceflight to date and will follow a year of unprecedented human spaceflight achievements that included six suborbital spaceflights in six months.

Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic

Four private astronauts from three different countries will journey to space on Virgin Galactic’s sixth commercial spaceflight.

The private astronauts onboard the ‘Galactic 06’ mission will include:

  • Astronaut 023 – Private Astronaut from Ukraine and California, United States

  • Astronaut 024 – Private Astronaut from Texas, United States

  • Astronaut 025 – Private Astronaut from Austria

  • Astronaut 026 – Private Astronaut from California, United States

The Virgin Galactic crew will include:

  • VSS Unity Commander CJ Sturckow and pilot Nicola Pecile

  • VMS Eve Commander Michael Masucci and pilot Dan Alix

Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic

Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, said: “Our inaugural year of commercial service demonstrated our spaceflight system’s ability to regularly deliver a safe and unparalleled customer experience for our astronauts and established new turn time records for reuseable human spaceflight systems. We’re excited to begin 2024 by bringing four new Virgin Galactic astronauts to space with our ‘Galactic 06’ mission.”

Head over to Virgin Galactic for ‘Galactic 06’ mission updates.