VSS Unity VF-01

VF-01

VSS Unity in February 2016
Mission type	Crewed suborbital spaceflight
Operator	Virgin Galactic
Mission duration	15 minutes
Apogee	89.99 kilometres (55.92 miles)
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	VSS Unity
Spacecraft type	SpaceShipTwo
Manufacturer	The Spaceship Company
Crew
Members	David Mackay Mike Masucci Beth Moses
Start of mission
Launch date	22 February 2019, 16:57 UTC
Launch site	Mojave Runway 30
Deployed from	VMS Eve
End of mission
Landing date	22 February 2019, 17:23 UTC
Landing site	Mojave Runway 30
VSS Unity VF-01 mission patch VSS Unity spaceflights ← VP-03 Unity 21 →

VF-01^[1] was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity that took place on 22 February 2019, piloted by David Mackay and co-piloted by Mike Masucci. It was operated by Virgin Galactic, a private company led by Richard Branson that intends to conduct space tourism flights in the future. Following VSS Unity VP-03, VF-01 was a demonstration of the craft's ability to carry passengers. Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut trainer Beth Moses acted as a test passenger, evaluating the experience for potential customers.^[2]

Reaching an apogee of 55.92 mi (89.99 km), the flight satisfied the United States definition of spaceflight (50 mi (80.47 km)), but fell short of the Kármán line (100 km (62.14 mi)), the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale definition. It was the highest flight of Unity and the SpaceShipTwo.

Crew

Position	Astronaut
Commander	David Mackay First spaceflight
Pilot	Michael Masucci First spaceflight
Passenger	Beth Moses First spaceflight

Flight

On 22 February 2019, Unity's mother ship VMS Eve carried it into flight in a parasite configuration. Shortly before 9 a.m., Unity was drop launched. Pilots Mackay and Masucci flew Unity at a maximum Mach of 3.04 to a maximum altitude of over 55.9 mi (295,000 ft).^[3] This altitude surpassed the 50-mile limit used in the United States to denote the limit of space, but fell short of the Kármán line. Both craft landed safely afterwards. During flight, Moses unstrapped from her seat and experienced weightlessness. Per the U.S. convention, Moses was also the first woman aboard a commercial spacecraft.^[4]

After Unity 22 in 2021, when a red warning light incident occurred, The New Yorker published an article revealing that Unity had been damaged during the VF-01 flight: glue securing the trailing edge of the horizontal stabilizer gave way. Todd Ericson, vice-president of safety and test at Virgin Galactic, said he was surprised those aboard had not been killed, and ultimately resigned his position because he judged the company to take safety insufficiently seriously.^[5][6]

References

1. McDowell, Jonathan (9 March 2019). "Jonathan's Space Report, No. 762".
2. Grush, Loren (22 February 2019). "Virgin Galactic spaceplane reaches space with first passenger on board". The Verge.
3. Amos, Jonathan (22 February 2019). "Virgin's Unity plane rockets skyward". BBC News. Retrieved 5 September 2026.
4. Tribou, Richard (22 February 2019). "Virgin Galactic sends first test passenger on space flight". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on 22 March 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
5. Schmidle, Nicholas (1 September 2021). "The Red Warning Light on Richard Branson's Space Flight". The New Yorker. Retrieved 5 September 2026.
6. Weitering, Hanneke (1 September 2021). "Pilots saw 'red light' warning during Virgin Galactic's historic spaceflight with Richard Branson: report". Space. Retrieved 5 September 2026.