Virgin Galactic

Astronaut Instructor Luke Mays is the newest member of the Virgin Galactic crew, having arrived from NASA this year after 25 years in aerospace. Accomplished and dedicated spaceflight operations engineer, with extensive experience leading both real-time operations and flight training of Crew and Flight Controllers for NASA, ESA, JAXA, and the military. Demonstrated expertise in operations integration and managing multi-discipline and international/multi-cultural organizations, evaluating talent and readiness, cultivating professional growth, and fostering strong industry relationships. Innovative leader with over 20 years of industry experience in diverse, high-stress operational environments, comprising multi-satellite constellations, crewed vehicles, military, and civilian programs. Courtesy of Virgin Galactic.

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Luke Mays

United States of America

Mission Specialist Christopher Huie joined Virgin Galactic in 2017 as a Flight Sciences Engineer, and is co-founder of Virgin Galactic’s Black Leaders in Aerospace Scholarship and Training (BLAST) Program. The son of Jamaican immigrants, hailing from Florida, Chris will become the 19th Black astronaut in the world. Courtesy of Virgin Galactic.

Christopher Huie

Jamila joined Virgin Galactic in 2019 where she has been an integral part of our team, leading internal communications. Jamila proudly hails from the Land of Enchantment and borderlands, just an hour’s drive from where she will fly to space at The Gateway to Space at Spaceport America, New Mexico. Jamila a­ttended New Mexico State University, studying linguistics, museum conservation, anthropology, and studio art. As a Latina woman of Purépechan-Mexican roots, a visual artist, and a communications professional who speaks four languages, Jamila will bring a different perspective from the pilots and engineers who have flown before her. Like many of our customers, Jamila doesn’t come from a technical or engineering background, making her well-placed to evaluate our customer readiness program. Jamila will become the third Virgin Galactic woman to fly to space, joining the first 100 women astronauts in history. Courtesy of Virgin Galactic.

Jamila Gilbert

NASA

This astronaut visited the International Space Station.

ISS Visitor

This astronaut crossed the Kármán Line (100 km), the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Crossed Kármán Line

This astronaut has spent over a month in space.

Space Resident

This astronaut is in the top 5% for number of missions.

Frequent Flyer

Galactic 02

Virgin Galactic will launch a crew of four to suborbital space from New Mexico on the VSS Unity, a rocket-powered spaceplane.

SpaceShipTwo is designed for suborbital tourism flights to space. Owned by Virgin Orbit, the SpaceShipTwo has so far climbed above the U.S. border to space of 80 km but not over the 100 km internationally-recognized point where space begins.

SpaceShipTwo

STS-88 (Endeavour)

The first International Space Station construction mission. Endeavour launched the Unity module for the U.S. and met up with the first Russian station module, Zarya ("sunrise"), linking the two modules together in an historic partnership.

The first reusable launch and landing spacecraft, the Space Shuttle began a new chapter of human space exploration. It launched like a rocket but landed on a runway like a plane. Shuttle crews deployed dozens of commercial satellites and two interplanetary probes to Venus and Jupiter. The Shuttle served as a mini space station and hosted hundreds of biomedical, psychological, physiological, materials science, and physics experiments that have directly benefited life on Earth. The five flight-worthy Shuttles -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour -- flew 135 missions over 30 years. The Shuttles helped construct the Russian Mir space station and brought nearly 80% of the International Space Station to orbit. Shuttles also deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle

STS-105 (Discovery)

Discovery's mission rotated the Expedition 2 and 3 International Space Station crews and delivered thousands of kilograms of science supplies and experiments to the ISS.

STS-117 (Atlantis)

This Space Shuttle mission brought the S3/S4 truss, solar arrays, and batteries to the International Space Station and rotated a single U.S. crewmember. More than 7,000 divots were put in the External Tank's foam when a hail storm passed over the launch pad. The flight was delayed three months for repairs.

VSS Unity VF-03

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity suborbital spaceship reached 89.2 km on this flight, making it a suborbital spaceflight by U.S. standards only. The U.S. marks the boundary of space at 80 km whereas the rest of the world uses the internationally recognized Kármán line at 100 km as the boundary to space. 

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STS-128 (Discovery)

This logistics and resupply mission to the International Space Station delivered numerous physics and chemistry experiments and marked the last time a Space Shuttle launched a long duration ISS crewmember. On September 11th, 2009, Discovery performed what would be the final Shuttle landing in California.

VSS Unity VP-03

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity suborbital spaceship reached 82.7 km on this flight, making it a suborbital spaceflight by U.S. standards only. The U.S. marks the boundary of space at 80 km whereas the rest of the world uses the internationally recognized Kármán line at 100 km as the boundary to space. 

CJ Sturckow

This astronaut crossed the NASA Space Line (80 km), which is the minimum altitude at which NASA considers a person to have flown in outer space.

Crossed 80km Line

Beth Moses is Chief Astronaut Instructor and Interiors Program Manager for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo program, and is a commercial astronaut. She was the first woman to make a spaceflight on a commercially launched vehicle. Courtesy of Virgin Galactic.

Unity 22

Unity 22 was Virgin Galactic's first fully crewed suborbital mission.

Galactic 03

VSS Unity VF-01

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity suborbital spaceship reached 89.99 km on this flight, making it a suborbital spaceflight by U.S. standards only. The U.S. marks the boundary of space at 80 km whereas the rest of the world uses the internationally recognized Kármán line at 100 km as the boundary to space. 

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