Virgin Galactic has announced that the target flight date for its first commercial spaceflight, Galactic 01, will be at 08:30 Mountain Time (MT) June 29, 2023, from Spaceport America, New Mexico.

The three-person crew from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy will board VSS Unity for a 90-minute flight to conduct a series of suborbital science experiments.

Galactic 01 Crew: 
Col. Walter Villadei, Italian Air Force: Mission Commander
Col. Villadei is the ‘Virtute 1’ mission commander. He will be tending to the rack-mounted payloads and wearing a state-of-the-art smart suit to measure his biometric data and physiological responses. He is in charge of the research execution and this spaceflight is part of his astronaut training for a future orbital space mission to the ISS.
Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, Physician, Italian Air Force
Lt. Col. Landolfi plans to conduct tests on ‘Galactic 01’ to measure cognitive performance in microgravity and to investigate how certain liquids and solids mix in microgravity.
Pantaleone Carlucci, Engineer, National Research Council of Italy (CNR)
Carlucci will be conducting tests that involve wearing multiple sensors that examine heart rate, brain function and other human performance metrics during spaceflight and in microgravity.
Colin Bennett, Virgin Galactic: Astronaut Instructor
Colin is the lead astronaut instructor carrying out all training and preparation for the Italian Air Force mission and will fly with the crew to assess the research flight experience during the mission