VSS Unity 24

Crew

Frederick W. Sturckow

Status: Active
8/11/1961 -
Nationality: American
Type: Private
First Flight: 12/4/1998
Last Flight: 5/25/2023

Frederick Wilford "Rick" Sturckow is an Engineer, retired United States Marine Corps officer, former NASA astronaut, and commercial spacecraft pilot. Sturckow is a veteran of four Space Shuttle missions. He flew on STS-88 and STS-105 as a pilot and STS-117 and STS-128 as a commander. All four missions docked with the International Space Station, making Sturckow one of two people to visit the station four times. Sturckow later was assigned to the Johnson Space Center as a CAPCOM. He left NASA in 2013 to become a pilot for Virgin Galactic.

Nicola Pecile

Status: Active
3/11/1973 -
Nationality: Italian
Type: Private
First Flight: 4/26/2023
Last Flight: 4/26/2023

Former fighter pilot and experimental test pilot for the Italian Air Force, now pilot at Virgin Galactic.

Rocket

SpaceShipTwo – Virgin Galactic

• Family: SpaceShipTwo
• Length: 18 m
• Diameter: 8.2 m
• Launch Mass: 9 T
• Low Earth Orbit Capacity: 0 kg

The SpaceShipTwo was manufactured by Virgin Galactic with the first launch on 2010-10-10. SpaceShipTwo has 55 successful launches and 5 failed launches with a total of 60 launches. The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.

Agency

Virgin Galactic – VG

• Type: Private
• Abbreviation: VG
• Administration: Founder: Richard Branson
• Founded: 2004
• Launchers: VMS Eve
• Spacecraft: VSS Enterprise | VSS Unity
• Country: USA

Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two.