Virgin Galactic
Founded in 2004 by Richard Branson
2005 The Spaceship Company is formed by Richard Branson and Burt Rutan
By 2005 has 31 million in deposits from prospective passengers, equates to 124 people at 250,000 dollars a ticket
December 2009 SpaceShipTwo is unveiled - Named VMS Eve after his mother
October 2014 VSS Enterprise crashes during testing
Fleet
SpaceShipTwo
VSS Enterprise (2010-2014)
VSS Unity (2016–present)
VSS 3 (under construction)
VSS 4 (under construction)
WhiteKnightTwo
VMS Eve (2008–present)
Boeing 747 (motherships)
Cosmic Girl (2015–present)
On 31 October 2014, Enterprise broke apart in flight
Pilot in command, Peter Siebold, escaped from the craft and parachuted to safety; copilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed in the crash
Completing rocket powered test flights to work out an enjoyable customer experience aboard Spaceship 2
Carried up to an altitude by the VSS unity carrier aircraft where it is released and propelled into space by rocket boosters
2018 VSS Unity reaches 51.4 miles above the Earth
January 2019 announces collaboration with Under Armourfor fabrication of space suits
Hope to create a basic space access infrastructure that will act as a catalyst for scientist and entrepreneurs
Branson plans to be the first passenger on SpaceShipTwo commercial flight by mid-2019
Plans to build another Spaceport in UAE, to launch commercial operations from there
Will continue to use the WhiteKnightTwoto launch the SpaceShipTwo
Planned mission include education, science, and technology research, as well as tourism
Expected to continue to develop new space vehicles to launch from multiple locations
They expect to be able to use the vehicles to transport people to space based hotels and research centers, or even transcontinental service.
“At Virgin Galactic we will always be striving to open space to change the world for good.”
Virgin Orbit a branch off of Virgin Galactic is leading the charge to make small satellites operators relevant and let them be able to control their launch schedule
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