Space billionaires stir alarm with absence of safety oversight
The success of two privately funded human-space launches last month has supercharged the U.S. commercial launch industry, and advocates say the lack of rules is a key component.
Branson and Virgin Galactic pull off key test for space tourism
The suborbital journey kicks off a landmark month for the future of space tourism, with Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos set to fly on a rocket made by Blue Origin, his space venture.
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism venture achieves NYSE debut liftoff
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. became the first space-tourism business to go public as it began trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. The listing, carried out through a merger with a shell investment company that was already trading, secures vital new funding ...
Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit completes key high-altitude rocket-launch test
Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit on Wednesday released a rocket from the wing of a modified Boeing 747 jetliner in midair in a key test of its high-altitude launch system for satellites, the company said. In the penultimate mission before Virgin Orbit offers commercial satellite launch ...
Virgin Galactic flies first test passenger to the edge of space
A Virgin Galactic rocket plane on Friday soared to the edge of space with a test passenger for the first time, nudging British billionaire Richard Branson's company closer to its goal of suborbital flights for space tourists. Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, who ...
Just exactly where is the final frontier?
The line between atmosphere and outer space is surprisingly debatable. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo may or may not have crossed it.
Virgin Galactic rocket ship reaches space in test flight, setting stage for tourists to boldly go
A Virgin Galactic rocket plane reached space on Thursday and returned safely to the California desert, capping years of testing to become the first U.S. commercial human flight to breach Earth's atmosphere since America's shuttle program ended in 2011. The successful test flight presages a ...
Branson ready to resume powered flights of rocket plane, eyes 2018 trip to space
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is poised to resume powered test flights more than 30 months after the fatal breakup of its experimental rocket plane, with the billionaire entrepreneur aiming to make the first trip into space himself by the middle of next year. Following the ...
ANA joins space tourism push as possible rival to Virgin, Blue Origin
ANA Holdings Inc. has invested in PD Aerospace Ltd., a Japanese company developing a craft to take people into space as early as 2023 that aims to rival Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Ltd. The airline, Japan's largest by sales, invested ¥20.4 million ($179,000) into PD ...
Given the many, irreducible uncertainties of space flight tourism in the future — brought home last week by the crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo vehicle — the guiding principle for customers is likely to be "informed consent."
Virgin Galactic crash won't deter space tourists
Grisly though it sounds, one strong customer market for comparatively high-risk Virgin Galactic space tourism flights of the future may be affluent people with a terminal medical diagnosis.
A team investigating the fatal test-flight crash of a Virgin Galactic passenger spaceship found that its rotating tail, designed to ease re-entry into the atmosphere, was activated prematurely, and said pilot error could not be ruled out. The preliminary findings of the National Transportation Safety ...
