The entire mission had a crew of eight people. According to Virgin Galactic, the VMS Eve mothership was commanded by Jameel Janjua and piloted by Nicola Pecile. Both have thousands of hours behind the flight stick of dozens of aircraft including fighter jets like the F-16. The VSS Unity spacecraft was commanded by Mike Masucci who has experience flying not only a number of fighter jets but also the Cold War-Era U2 spy plane. The pilot was CJ Sturckow who, in addition to other jets, has also flown the Space Shuttle. It’s safe to say the pilots and commanders of both craft had plenty of experience.
In case you were wondering about what a flight on a Virgin Galactic vessel might cost. Seats aboard the craft retail for a total of $450,000, roughly one thousand times what an average plane ticket may cost flying out of LAX would cost. Virgin Galactic now competes with the aforementioned Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in newly emerging the private spaceflight sphere.
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