Virgin Galactic is getting ready for its second and last spaceflight of the year at Spaceport America. On Friday, leaders took KOB 4 on a special tour and shared what’s next for the company.

Unity, Virgin Galactic’s current spaceship, made its debut eight years ago in 2016. Crews are preparing to send it up for the final time. They are making room for Delta – the next line of spaceships.

Virgin Galactic’s President Mike Moses explained Friday that Unity and Delta look the same from the outside but Delta has different materials and an upgraded design. It’s also more cost efficient for the company.

Delta can be made faster for less money, and maintenance will take less time. Moses says Delta will be able to fly twice a week, whereas Unity can only fly once a month.

The new line of ships are estimated to be ready for testing in late 2025 and flying in 2026.

Once those ships are in the air, Virgin Galactic estimates it’ll have 125 flights a year – which means more people in space than ever before. Galactic 07 is the company’s seventh commercial flight. One researcher and three customers will be on board.

Kelly Gerardi was one of the researchers aboard Galactic 05. She says the experience is unmatched.

“It was unbelievable,” Gerardi said. “You know, we’ve spent the better part of a decade incrementally testing technologies like microgravity. Search campaigns where you get maybe 10-12 seconds of microgravity at the most. So the ability to suddenly bring that research into space and benefit from continuing to a minute of microgravity exposure was game changing.”

Gerardi was able to conduct three experiments during the 90-minute trip.

“I brought a continuous glucose monitor, or CGM. It’s the first time a CGM has been in a subordinal spaceflight, studying insulin resistance in space. But what I found was that the impact of that research was so powerful for representation and visible representation in the medical community,” Gerardi said. “I also carried a free-floating fluid cell that was really exciting. It was designed to see how liquid behaves in a container in microgravity.”

The third experiment was Astroskin, a health monitoring device Gerardi wore under her spacesuit. She says Virgin Galactic trips are different because it is not just about the research, it gives civilians the opportunity to go to space.

“Our team is strictly here for the science, but I’ll tell you, I’m probably the biggest proponent for commercial spaceflight of space tourism as an enablement of expanding those economics and democratizing access to space,” Gerardi said.

Galactic 07 is expected to take off at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning.