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Virgin Galactic, which realized space travel with founder Sir Richard Branson one step ahead of Blue Origin led by Jeff Bezos, is expected to start commercial travel for ticket buyers as early as the first half of 2022. . However, on October 14, Virgin Galactic announced that it would postpone the launch of its commercial space tourism service until the fourth quarter of 2022, saying it would reschedule its development and test flights.
Aircraft modification and improvement work is scheduled to begin this month for both the SpaceShipTwo and the WhiteKnightTwo that transport it to the sky, and it is expected that it will take 8 to 10 months to complete all of them. Therefore, upon completion of June-August 2022, several test flights will be conducted and the transition to commercial operation is considered.
Originally planned for this refurbishment, but earlier it was planned to be a test flight called the Unity 23. However, due to the recent gas inspection that certain partial strength margins may have been lowered and the need to perform additional physical inspections, Unity23 has been delayed until mid-2022.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier made a statement in a statement that changing the aircraft upgrade period and Unity23 schedule is the right approach for both business and customers, emphasizing safety first procedures and opening the most efficient avenues for commercial services.
In addition, Virgin Galactic test flights are planned for 24 and 25 degrees after Unity 23, the latter will signal the start of commercial service, but the schedule for both has not been revealed. Related information can be found here.
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