The suborbital flight reached an altitude of approximately 54.3 miles before making a graceful glide back to a runway landing at Spaceport America. This successful mission reaffirms Virgin Galactic's ability to conduct repeatable spaceflight operations.

The crew on board included three Virgin Galactic crew members as well as three members of the Italian Air Force as paying customers. Additionally, there were 13 research payloads on board, allowing the crew to conduct various scientific experiments.

Billionaire Richard Branson's space tourism company Virgin Galactic announced that a test flight of four crew members will take place in May, and the first commercial flight is scheduled for late June 2023.

In the first-quarter earnings release from May 5, the company announced plans to begin commercial flights of its VSS Unity spaceplane in Q1 of 2023 after completing upgrades of the vehicle and VMS Eve, its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.

During the 90-minute journey, space tourists will enjoy several minutes of out-of-seat weightlessness and breath-taking views of Earth from the 17 windows of the spaceship.