The official page of the Twitter social network of the American aerospace company Virgin Galactic, which specializes in suborbital flights, confirmed in these minutes the departure of the first scientific research mission ever carried out by the company. Three Italians were on board the ship: Colonel Walter Villadei, Lieutenant Colonel Angelo Landolfi, Pantaleone Carlucci, engineer and researcher at the National Research Council (Cnr).

"For the first time, the Space Ship Two will take off with an Italian crew. For the Virtute1 mission, the Italian crew will conduct experiments in microgravity conditions", writes the Italian Air Force in a tweet.

This mission marks the beginning of commercial flights for research as well as space tourism for Virgin Galactic. The Space Ship Two spacecraft will take off from the Spaceport America base in New Mexico and will reach an altitude between 80 and 90 kilometers. In the 90 minutes available, the crew will have to perform 13 scientific experiments in various fields: from biology to materials science.