Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. welcomed astronauts and payloads home on May 22, 2021, after its third spaceflight and the first from its quarters in New Mexico, the company announced in a statement.

  • VSS Unity achieved a Mach 3 speed and reached space at an altitude of 55.45 miles.
  • It was released from the mothership VMS Eve, which was piloted by Kelly Latimer and Michael Masucci.
  • The VSS Unity landed at Spaceport America carrying on its deck Dave Mackay and CJ Sturckow, the first to fly to space from three different states.
  • Virgin Galactic said it was able to test several objectives such as revenue-generating research for NASA, data collection, and testing the spaceship’s upgraded horizontal stabilizers.
  • The company will proceed to the next milestone once the test data gathered is reviewed, and the spaceship inspected.
  • Founder Richard Branson took to Twitter to post a video of him celebrating the development.

SPCE: NYSE is up 21.64% premarket.

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