On Friday, January 26, Virgin Galactic made its sixth commercial space flight. Ukrainian Lina Borozdina flew to sub-orbital space along with three other tourists, who bought her ticket back in 2005.
The footage of the spacecraft landing was posted on Virgin Galactic’s X page. “Welcome back to Earth, Galactic06! Our pilots, crew and spacecraft have landed safely at the Spaceport America, New Mexico,” the post reads.
Borozdina became the first Ukrainian woman to make such a flight. Virgin Galactic’s website stated that she is a “private astronaut from Ukraine and California, USA.”
The VMS Eve launch vehicle lifted off from the launch pad around noon EDT, carrying the four-seat VSS Unity spacecraft. Eve dropped the Unity at an altitude of about 13,700 meters, after which the spacecraft ignited its rocket engine and headed for suborbital space.
The passengers spent several minutes in zero gravity and were able to see their home planet against the blackness of space. The vehicle descended to Earth about 90 minutes after launch. It should be noted that Virgin Galactic did not broadcast the mission live.
