Who hasn't looked up to the heavens with awe and wonder? It isn't just the vastness of space that inspires such feelings; it is the mystery about what is "out there" and the logical certainty — and emotionally terrifying probability — that humankind is not alone in the universe.

There is too the extraordinary "pull" of space, captured best by poet and pilot John Gillespie Magee Jr., who "slipped the surly bonds of Earth." Who has not dreamed of that same passage, literally and actually floating across the sky?

Richard Branson launched Virgin Galactic to make that dream a reality, to promote space tourism for ordinary citizens (or at least those with hefty bank accounts). Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic was established "to transform access to outer space." The development of a reusable vehicle to access outer space was the centerpiece of this vision.