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 ...
Richard Branson's space-tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, is planning to go public, creating the first listed human spaceflight firm. Virgin Galactic said Tuesday it is merging with Social Capital Hedosophia, whose CEO, Chamath Palihapitiya, will become chairman of the combined entity. The value of the merger ...
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 ...
New era for space tourism: Flights from Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin could come in 2019
The two companies leading the pack in the pursuit of space tourism say they are just months away from their first out-of-this-world passenger flights — though neither has set a firm date. Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, and Blue Origin, by Amazon ...
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 ...
Pilot describes harrowing free fall after Virgin Galactic spaceship broke up
Free-falling miles above the desert, his test spaceship ripped to pieces and the frigid air hard to breathe, pilot Peter Siebold struggled through crippling injuries to turn on his oxygen and just to stay conscious. Siebold was aware that Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo had violently disintegrated ...
The surviving pilot of the Virgin Galactic spaceship that tore apart over the Mojave Desert was thrown clear of the disintegrating craft and did not know his co-pilot had prematurely unlocked the re-entry braking system, federal investigators said Wednesday. In its update on the still-evolving ...
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.
