Virgin Galactic is due to send its first commercial flight into space later today.
But what is a commercial spaceflight? What will happen on board? And what does this mean for the future of space tourism?While Galactic 01 is being billed as Virgin Galactic's first commercial flight, it won't have tourists on board.But when Galactic 02 takes off in August, it will carry paying customers.Galactic 01 will carry three crew members from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy along with an astronaut instructor from Virgin Galactic.
The research crew will conduct 13 experiments examining biomedicine thermo-fluid dynamics and microgravity.The spaceplane will be launched in mid-air from a carrier plane at an altitude of about 9.4 miles .