Investing.com – Virgin Galactic stock (NYSE:SPCE) jumped over 4% Thursday as the company set a late September-early October timeline for its first commercial research mission.
The company is launching its first commercial research mission named ‘Unity 23’ along with the Italian Air Force to the edge of space, it said on Thursday.
The mission will carry three paying crew members from the Air Force and Italy’s government agency National Research Council.
The crew will study the effects on the human body as they move from gravity to microgravity. Other payloads on board will study the effect of the microgravity environment on a range of chemical and physical properties.
The mission follows a successful first full-crew test flight to space by Virgin Galactic's passenger rocket in July that also carried its founder, billionaire Richard Branson.