Virgin Galactic’s next crewed flight will blast to the edge of space later this month

Virgin Galactic is gearing up for its first crewed flight in nearly two years. The space tourism company announced that it will launch its Unity 25 crew into space later this month but didn’t provide a specific date.

The upcoming spaceflight is “the final assessment of the full spaceflight system and astronaut experience” ahead of Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight that’s planned for the end of June. Unity 25 marks the company’s fifth spaceflight and will launch four Virgin Galactic employees — Beth Moses, Luke Mays, Jamila Gilbert, and Christopher Huie — to the edge of space.

As is the case with Virgin Galactic’s other spaceflights, this launch will involve the use of two vehicles: the VSS Unity and the VMS Eve. While the VSS Unity is the rocket-powered spaceplane that houses Virgin Galactic’s passengers, the VMS Eve is the mothership that carries Unity into space. When the two reach around 50,000 feet of altitude, Eve drops Unity before the spaceplane blasts its way to suborbital space, allowing passengers to experience a few moments of weightlessness as they gaze upon Earth from far above.