'To new heights:' Hundreds flock to Spaceport America for spaceship’s final launch

SPACEPORT AMERICA — Slipping through the cracks in a throng of hundreds of people, a little boy in a white shirt leaned over a crowd-control barrier, straining to see a rocket ship that just came back from space and landed in New Mexico with four brand new astronauts.

“My dad was in that,” he said, peeking ahead to see the long white craft slowing in the distance.

Oliver, 8 years old, later ran up to hug his father, Jameel Janjua, fresh off of the rocketship VSS Unity. Janjua’s first time in space, he successfully piloted Unity's last flight in and out of Earth’s orbit for mission “Galactic 07.”

It was the final flight for Unity before spaceflight company Virgin Galactic takes a break from commercial flights to build a new class of spaceships that’ll get going in 2026.

“I never thought I would do this,” Janjua said after his first space flight, his voice breaking. “And here we are.”

Eight people flew on Saturday. Virgin Galactic had a commander and pilot on both Unity and its mothership Eve, and four astronauts flew as customers on the flight.

Tuva Atasever flew as a research astronaut with Axiom Space. The other three were private astronauts: Andy Sadhwani, a principal propulsion engineer at SpaceX; Irving Izchak Pergament, a certified airline transport pilot; and Giorgio Manenti, who advises clients on hotel and resort investment strategies.

Commander Nicola Pecile and pilot Janjua served as Virgin Galactic’s crew on Unity, and Commander Andy Edgell and pilot C.J. Sturckow flew Eve.

The launch

A previously dark and cloudy sky on Saturday opened up as the morning progressed to allow the more than 600 visitors from around the world at Spaceport America to see the final launch of VSS Unity.

Waking up at 4 a.m. to drive two dozen miles down a rural road near Truth or Consequences, a large crowd gradually began filling Spaceport America on Saturday. Officials from NASA, people waiting to go on their own space flights and other astronautical experts mingled over coffee, waiting for the main event to begin.

A couple of hours later, it was time: the four soon-to-be astronauts walked arm-in-arm down the hangar — known as the “hero walk” — amid the sounds of a cheering crowd to take a ride to the spaceship scheduled for blast-off in an hour.

The crowd later excitedly watched as VSS Unity, attached to carrier mothership VMS Eve, accelerated along the runway and into the skies. The ship eventually turned into a small white speck to the human eye, barely possible to see at all.

Then, at about 45,000 feet, Unity separated from Eve. The people below cheered at the release, a straight white line marking Unity’s blast into the sky and eventually space.

Just before 9:30 a.m., it was official: the world had four new astronauts.

And similar to the hero walk, the four astronauts in space linked hands as they floated weightlessly in microgravity, a livestream of the cabin showed.

After just a few minutes in space, the astronauts strapped back into their seats and Unity began its quick descent.

Two sonic booms indicated the ship’s re-entry into the atmosphere. A cheering crowd at the Spaceport peered into the sky to catch a glimpse of Unity orbiting above their heads.

The circling ship dipped lower and lower, slowing down, as Eve followed nearby. At 9:41 a.m., Unity completed its final commercial suborbital flight, bringing Virgin Galactic's creation of new astronauts to 37.

Photos: Hundreds flock to Spaceport America for spaceship’s final launch

The mission

A major goal of the mission was research. Unity had multiple payloads — instruments or systems used for technological and scientific purposes.

“It’s a big science mission, which is great,” Spaceline President Mike Moses said.

Atasever, the second person from Turkey to go to space, conducted “human-tendered experiments.” He had wearable payloads, with different equipment on his body to conduct seven experiments.

His research will study things like insulin pen payloads and how blood dynamics change in the frontal cortex in microgravity.

Post-flight, Atasever described the experiments as a “huge success.”

“I’m really looking forward to receiving the data,” he said.

The ship also had autonomous rack-mounted payloads.

UC Berkeley conducted research on a new way to 3D print things using a polymer in microgravity, while Purdue University looked at how to contain propellant sloshes to improve vehicles in orbit.

Atasever said entities like Axiom and Turkey, of course, carried out research, but the core of the mission was to inspire the next generation to dream bigger and bolder.

“This is a journey that we’re going to go into together and hopefully carry both our nation and also our global community to new heights,” he said.

Janjua said the new astronauts that flew on Unity will spread a message of hope and unity, and “that’s really what we are all here for.”

He boasted about the diversity of the crew, which included people from Turkey, Italy, Israel and the U.S.

“If you look over the last six months of the people that we’ve been able to introduce to human space exploration,” Janjua said, “we’re changing the way this is done.”

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson surprised the astronauts with his presence on the ground and later told the crowd there to watch the launch that his company wants to make space travel more accessible.

“What we want to do is enable many people to experience what our astronauts experienced today,” he said.

Moses said more than 700 people have reservations to fly to space with Virgin Galactic, and the company hasn’t even sold tickets in half a decade. The more frequently flying Delta ships that are under development will help take the backlog down and allow ticket sales to start up again, he said.

He said the Delta-class ships will fly twice a week and require less maintenance and inspections.

This may have been Unity’s final flight, Moses said, but there are good things ahead.

“That’s not the end of the story,” he said. “A whole new chapter is about to start with us.”

Editor's note 6/9 at 8:30 p.m.: This article has been updated to correctly reflect the distance at which Unity and Eve separated.