Virgin Galactic Delays Italian Air Force Space Mission Until Completing Craft Analysis

Daniyal Sohail Published October 15, 2021 | 04:00 AM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th October, 2021) Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company will not fly its planned space mission for the Italian Air Force until completing analysis on the material in its spacecraft, the company announced.

"Recent material testing returned new data that requires further analysis," Virgin Atlantic said in a release on Thursday. "Italian Air Force mission to follow enhancement period."

A potential supplier component issue has been resolved and the company's commercial service is now expected to commence in the fourth quarter, or final three months, of 2022, the release said.

"Virgin Galactic today announced that it will now begin its planned enhancement program for VMS Eve and VSS Unity and will conduct the Unity 23 test flight after this work is complete," the release added.

On September 30, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Virgin Galactic could resume flight operations after it concluded its investigation of the Unity 22 launch mishap that took place in the state of New Mexico in July.

The FAA said it determined that Virgin Galactic's spacecraft, which was carrying owner Richard Branson, deviated from its assigned airspace when it descended from space and the company failed to notify the agency about the incident as required.