Virgin Galactic’s 1st commercial spaceflight to launch tonight: How to watch live

Here is how you can watch Virgin Galactic's first commercial spaceflight live tonight.

VSS Unity in space during a previous mission. (Image credit: Virgin Galactic)

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Richard Branson-founded Virgin Galactic is set to launch its first commercial spaceflight ‘Galactic 01’ at 9.30 PM IST on Thursday, June 29. The mission will carry a three-person crew from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy on a 90-minute flight where they will conduct suborbital science experiments.

The company will live stream the spaceflight on its website and on YouTube. You can watch it in the window below. The live stream will start at 8.30 PM IST on Thursday, June 29. The launch will happen from Spaceport America in New Mexico in the United States, which is the company’s hub for launches.

Galactic 01 mission

Virgin Galactic will send three Italians and a company flight instructor to space, according to Space.com. There will also be two pilots on the carrier plane VMS Eve and two pilots on VSS Unity. The carrier plane, VMS Eve will fy high in the atmosphere while VSS Unity is the SpaceShipTwo model spacecraft that will enter suborbital space with four passengers.

Colin Bennett will be the astronaut instructor from Virgin Galactic during the mission. The other members are Pantaleone Carlucci, an engineer working at the National Research Council of Italy, Colin Bennett, an astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic, Walter Villadei, a colonel in the Italian Air Force and Angelo Landolfi, a physician with the Italian Air Force.