Three Italians are set to be the first from their country, and the first Europeans, to go sub-orbital on a Virgin Galactic flight at the end of this month, it was announced Thursday. Air force Colonel Walter Villadei, lieutenant colonel Angelo Landolfi, and National Research Council (CNR) engineer Pantaleone Carlucci will carry out scientific experiments on board the Spaceship-2 space plane. 

The mission was presented Thursday by the air force and the CNR. It will be called Virtute-1, an Italian acronym for Italian Flight For Suborbital Research and Technology. Virtute is the Latin for 'virtue'. Virgin Galactic (VG) is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 18% stake through Virgin Investments Limited.