Rocketing into space over the New Mexico desert, two Air Force Academy graduates look over at each other and smile. 

Pilots Lt. Col. (Ret.) Mike “Sooch” Masucci ’85 and Lt. Col. (Ret.) Kelly Latimer ’87 are making dreams — including their own — come true as Virgin Galactic begins offering commercial spaceflights out of Spaceport America.

In early November, the Academy grads piloted VSS (Virgin Space Ship) Unity together for the first time during Galactic 05, a research mission that was the company’s sixth flight in six months.

“Seeing the curvature of the Earth, its atmosphere and the blackness of space is absolutely incredible,” Latimer says.

Each suborbital flight lasts about 15 minutes, once the spaceship detaches from the mother ship and ignites its powerful rocket. VMS (Virgin Mother Ship) Eve and its two pilots carry the spaceship and its two pilots, up to four passengers plus its payload for about 45 minutes, climbing to around 45,000 feet before releasing the spaceship.

As the roughly 30,000-pound Unity drops away, the equally heavy Eve naturally jumps up. Then the spaceship's rocket motor ignites, pushing the spacecraft beyond the speed of sound and creating a sonic boom that onlookers can hear. 

The spacecraft immediately pitches up and the motor burns for about a minute. The sky quickly turns from blue to black as Unity pushes beyond Mach 3 before reaching a height around 290,000 feet above the Earth. Once the motor cuts off, the passengers unstrap and have about three minutes to float freely and conduct planned research.

The spacecraft is inverted, allowing clear views from multiple small windows, before descending through the atmosphere, circling down as a glider before landing.

On clear days, the public can witness an entire mission from launch to landing from Elephant Butte Dam, just east of the small town of Truth or Consequences.

With around 800 tickets currently sold, according to Virgin Galactic, there should be flights launching from Spaceport America for years to come.

(Approximately 600 customers paid $250,000 for a future flight before prices increased to $450,000.)

Latimer studied astronautical engineering at the Air Force Academy, withthe goal of someday flying in space as an astronaut. Today, she’s happy to call

the goal of someday flying in space as an astronaut. Today, she’s happy to call herself a spaceship pilot and the director of flight test for Virgin Galactic.

She credits her time at the Academy for shaping her into the leader she is today, saying she was shy when she arrived at USAFA but graduated with confidence in her abilities.

“Preparation, teamwork, setting goals, overcoming adversity and pushing forward were crucial,” she says.

Latimer’s last assignment in her 20-year military career was as commander of the 418th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California.

“It was the most rewarding position I had,” she says. “It made use of all the leadership skills I learned at the Academy.”

Her first civilian job was working as a NASA test pilot at Edwards. One aircraft she flew was a modified 747 with a big telescope in the back. The rear door

opened during flight, allowing the crew to observe astronomical phenomena while traveling all around the globe.

Next up Latimer took a job at Boeing, where she flew a variety of aircraft, from a C-17 cargo plane — which she flew operationally — to a modified 767

air refueling tanker.

In 2015, Masucci called Cadet Squadron 11 mate Latimer to gauge her interest in a pilot opening at Virgin Galactic.

“He said, ‘If you ever thought this was something you wanted to do, now is the time,’” she remembers. She jumped at the chance.

The lifelong dream of traveling to space was inching closer for both of them, just as it has for 40 other Academy graduates selected for astronaut training by NASA.

Latimer spent her first four or five years at Virgin Galactic as chief pilot of a modified 747 used to launch small satellites into space. That operation eventually spun off into its own company, Virgin Orbit, before filing for bankruptcy and shutting down earlier this year.

During her eight years with the commercial space company, she has also test-flown the mothership, Eve. Eve and Unity are housed in a futuristic three-story terminal building called Gateway to Space, a commercial spaceport that includes training areas and operational facilities.

The Galactic 05 research mission on Nov. 2 was Latimer’s third space flight and Masucci’s sixth, but both agree sitting next to an Air Force Academy graduate was special.

“Both of us have had the dream to travel to space, and to get to do it together was really, really special,” Latimer says.

She says she expects space tourism to expand rapidly over the next 10 to 20 years.

“I think civilians will have orbited the moon 10 years from now, and they may be looking at missions to Mars,” Latimer says. “It’s taken a long time to get here, but now that we’re here, it’s really, really incredible.”

From a young age, Masucci was looking up into the night sky and dreaming. After all, he came of age while NASA tested, trained and prepared to land Americans on the moon. Astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon’s surface in July 1969 to the amazement of many watching on television.

Masucci was hooked. He followed the developments of America’s first space station, Skylab, and the accomplishments of the 30-year Space Shuttle program, which, when including repeat flyers, took 852 people on 135 missions.

Out of high school, Masucci applied to the only two undergraduate institutions offering astronautical engineering: MIT and the Air Force Academy.

He earned his private pilot’s license through the Academy’s Aero Club, joined the flying team, and participated in the gliding and parachute programs.

“I was very airmanship and aviation leadership-focused, which was critical to my career,” Masucci says. “I made great friends and learned the importance of being a good teammate.”

He attended pilot training at Vance Air Force Base and stayed on as a T-38 instructor. Piloting the U-2 at Beale Air Force Base was up next before becoming an instructor and evaluator in the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.

From there, he went to Edwards Air Force Base as a test pilot and later taught at the test pilot school. He ended his military career after a variety of command positions, including leading the U.S. military’s oldest flying unit, the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, which trains U-2 and RQ-4 Global Hawk pilots for high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. 

This squadron, originally named the 1st Aero Squadron, was the first tactical aviation unit to participate in American military action. In 1916, the squadron pursued Mexican revolutionary Francisco “Pancho” Villa in northern Mexico after he and his men raided Columbus, New Mexico, killing 18, including 10 servicemen.

“The 1st Aero Squadron’s military actions started right here in New Mexico,” Masucci says. “It’s very interesting to have the connection that more than 100 years later, commercial spaceflight is happening about 100 miles away.”

Now having gone into suborbital space six times, Masucci — lead instructor pilot for Virgin Galactic — says things are starting to slow down for him on a spaceflight. Though he remains busy running through procedures and checklists, he makes sure to look around and appreciate his role in bringing space

travel to the masses.

“Going into space is definitely a life-altering experience,” he says. “Earth is so bright, and there is a little teeny, thin band of atmosphere around this precious spaceship we call Earth that is floating in the dark void of space. Everything you know is down there, and it just reemphasizes how precious that is.”

Masucci, who first went to space on a test flight in February 2019, says he loves providing customers the opportunity to experience space and to feel weightlessness.

“We get to fulfill someone’s lifelong dream of going to space,” he says. “Seeing them floating around experiencing weightlessness is very gratifying.”

After retiring from the Air Force, Masucci chose to work for a private charter company for five years, flying customers around the world.

“I learned a lot about customer service while taking care of our passengers,” he says. “When I interviewed for the job with Virgin Galactic 10 years ago, I learned my commercial customer experience background is what distinguished me from other test pilots and got me the interview.”

Masucci says he also learned things during his time at the Academy that have helped him throughout his military and civilian careers.

“I left the Academy with a good sense of what’s really important,” he says. “Integrity and honesty are at the top, and  then hard work and perseverance come quickly after that.” 

Masucci is excited to see what future Space Force guardians, including those graduating from the Air Force Academy,

take on in the coming decades.

“I fully expect Space Force cadets down the road in their careers to be integral to commercial spaceflight,” he says. “They should be very excited about where they are graduating into.”

He also sees how private industry like Virgin Galactic — founded in 2004 by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson — may be able to assist future guardians  at the Air Force Academy.

“We could easily provide some potential training, requirements, obligations and fulfillments that Space Force cadets may need down the road,” Masucci says. “If we have a good relationship between the government and commercial sides, technology and capability will move forward at a much faster rate.”

Virgin Galactic is working to move faster into the future with its next generation of spacecraft, known as Delta class spaceships. 

Instead of having one spaceship, Unity, which the company plans to continue flying, multiple Delta class spaceships will join the fleet.

The new Delta spaceships will hold six passengers, compared to Unity’s four, and be able to fly multiple times

per week, compared to Unity’s one-month turnaround between flights.

Latimer says Delta-class test flights will likely occur in 2025, with commercial operations beginning as soon as 2026.

“This is really groundbreaking,” she says. “Many more people are going to have the opportunity to experience this.”

Latimer and Masucci both admit they are thrilled to have a role in making space tourism a reality.

“It’s a sensory overload experience, and to be able to share that with a friend, a fellow Academy grad and a professional colleague, it’s just an amazing

experience,” Masucci says. “It’s been a wild ride, and I’m looking forward to many more.”