Virgin Galactic announces launch date and crew for first commercial space flight.

Virgin Galactic has announced that it will conduct its first fully commercial flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane on June 29, carrying three Italians who will conduct more than a dozen experiments. The flight is considered the first fully commercial mission by Virgin Galactic, although the company did generate small amounts of revenue by flying research payloads on earlier test flights. The June 29 flight, called Virtute 1 by the Italian government, features three Italian payload specialists, commanded by Walter Villadei, a colonel in the Italian Air Force.