Virtute-1: the first Italian suborbital mission completed successfully

Virtute-1: the first Italian suborbital mission completed successfully

The VIRTUTE-29 mission (Italian Flight for Research and Technology sUborbiTalE) left yesterday, 2023 June 16.30, at 1 pm, from Virgin Galactic's America spaceport (in New Mexico – USA), which saw the Italian crew composed of two Air Force Officers and an engineer from the National Research Council (CNR), take off aboard the VSS Unity spacecraft (SpaceShipTwo class), for a flight lasting a total of ninety minutes.

The Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. SA Luca Goretti commented: “The Ministry of Defense and in particular the Air Force, with its wealth of skills, is naturally projected towards the enhancement and protection of space defense and security. Space flight is an aeronautical domain yet to be explored and represents a technological challenge where national technical and industrial skills can play their full part. Scientific, entrepreneurial and military development must work together to ensure the right relevance in this domain too. This will ensure the maintenance of excellence in the National Aerospace sector" concluded General Goretti.

In command of the VIRTUTE-1 mission, born from a commercial agreement between the Air Force and Virgin Galactic, Col. Walter Villadei, space engineer and cosmonaut, who also coordinated the operational and training activities of the Italian crew, which includes Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, aerospace doctor with the role of responsible for the medical aspects of the Italian crew and the medical experiments proposed by the Air Force, and the Dr. Pantaleone Carlucci, engineer and researcher of the National Research Council (CNR), with the role of responsible for the on-board experiments proposed by the CNR itself.

During the suborbital flight, following the engine shutdown, the cabin of the VSS Unity became a scientific laboratory within which the crew was able to conduct tests - in microgravity conditions - relating to medicine, advanced materials, physics fluids, physiology. The research projects were coordinated by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine of the Air Force (IMAS) of Milano; from the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico and the University of Milano; from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Mathematical Sciences of the Faculty of Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Marche. The information acquired will provide useful data for scientific research applicable not only to the technological sector but also to the medical sector: the results will allow us to study the effects of agents such as radiation, free radicals and oxidative stress, the basis of many pathologies and the main cause of aging mobile phone.

The VIRTUTE-1 mission, which inaugurates the era of commercial flights for Virgin Galactic, is in line with the Defense Space Plan, which aims to increase - with the support of the world of research and industry - the current knowledge of space, aerospace and suborbital flight, verifying and evaluating the possible developments of the technologies available today.

“Congratulations to the Air Force, the National Research Council and all personnel involved for the success of the “Virtute 1” mission. An achievement that represents a very valid example of institutional collaboration and a first stage towards the development of suborbital flight in our nation. On this occasion I also renew my best wishes for the anniversary, this year, of the centenary of the foundation of both the AM and the CNR, institutions that have been able to renew themselves and accept the challenge of always keeping pace with technological innovation and, with this mission, they operated effectively and in synergy to support Italy", this is the statement from the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.