Virgin Galactic Names Crew for First Commercial Space Flight
The Facts
On Monday, Virgin Galactic announced the crew for the company’s first commercial space flight, Galactic 01, which is set to launch this week.
Col. Walter Villadei and Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi of the Italian Air Force, Pantaleone Carlucci, an engineer from the National Research Council of Italy, and Virgin Galactic astronaut Colin Bennett will be aboard the VSS Unity on June 29.
The Spin
Narrative A
Virgin Galactic’s commercial flights are the obvious next step in the adventure tourism industry — even considering the OceanGate submersible disaster. Although regulation is limited, Virgin and similar companies have done their best to assure safety.
Narrative B
The OceanGate tragedy should be a lesson to the commercial space industry, which needs more safety regulations. There’s plenty of room to simultaneously regulate the industry and nurture innovation. We shouldn’t wait for a space travel tragedy before increasing government oversight.
