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Stories about: Virgin Galactic


Virgin Galactic to Start Conducting Suborbital Flights This Summer

The CEO and president of private suborbital spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, George Whitesides, announced on January 20 that the WhiteKnightTwo / SpaceShipTwo combo is nearly ready to enter commercial use. The two aircraft will take paying passengers on suborbital joyrides. The company has taken an innovative ap...

4 February 2012
05:40 GMT

See the SpaceShipTwo During a Drop Test - Video

This video released by officials at Virgin Galactic shows the SpaceShipTwo being dropped from its WhiteKnightTwo aircraft carrier for a critical drop test. This is the method through which the spacecraft will separate from its carrier, before it ignites its engines and flies to the edge of space. SpaceShipTwo is the ...

4 November 2011
06:59 GMT

USAF Pilot Selected to Fly Virgin Galactic Spacecraft

United States Air Force pilot Keith Colmer has been selected by Virgin Galactic to become the lead pilot of SpaceShipTwo, the suborbital spacecraft that the company is developing for conducting joyrides at the edge of space. He is now the first commercial astronaut pilot to be selected for such a position. Virgin p...

2 November 2011
07:43 GMT

Virgin Galactic Ponders Spacesuit Design Options

Officials from Virgin Galactic are thinking of using a James Bond movie as inspiration for designing spacesuits to be worn by passengers on their SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. The machines are scheduled to provide paying customers with suborbital joyrides starting in 2013. The company is currently still developing its v...

26 October 2011
14:01 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Suffers Malfunction in Test Flight

During the latest test flights of the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft the Virgin Galactic company is developing for suborbital joyrides, the vehicle entered a period of uncontrolled descent, during which time it was literally falling out of the sky. Eventually, the crew regained control of the situation.The spacecraft's...

18 October 2011
02:46 GMT

NASA, Virgin Galactic Partner for Suborbital Flights

Officials from private spaceflight company Virgin Galactic announced yesterday, October 13, that the American space agency has just signed a $4.5 million contract for renting several seats on upcoming suborbital flights. The sorties will be flown with the SpaceShipTwo. Virgin and Scaled Composites are currently build...

14 October 2011
11:08 GMT

Virgin Galactic Unveils Spacecraft Production Facility

In a ceremony held on September 19 at the Mojave Air and Space Port, in California, officials from private spaceflight company Virgin Galactic announced the opening of the company's Final Assembly, Integration and Test Hangar (FAITH). The new structure will house the installations and personnel needed to cons...

12 October 2011
09:01 GMT

Virgin Galactic Gears Up for Next-Stage Demo Flights

Officials at Virgin Galactic say that the space tourism company will enter a hiatus of sorts during the summer, as far as testing their spacecraft concept goes. During this break, engineers will get ready to begin the next stage of demo flights, before the vehicle becomes operational.The company is developing the Spa...

29 July 2011
09:39 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Successfully Completes More Flight Tests

Virgin Galactic appears to have indeed built one of the most impressive, private spacecraft ever. Their SpaceShipTwo, and its carrier WhiteKnightTwo, are now completing one successful test flight after another, validating systems and performances ahead of entering active use. The aircraft duo is designed to take ...

25 June 2011
03:55 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Completes 7th Glide Test Flight

Officials at the private spaceflight company Virgin Galactic are excited to announce the successful completion of the seventh glide test flight of the SpaceShipTwo. This is the machine that the company plans to use to take paying customers on suborbital joyrides high above Earth's surface.The recent test, which ...

5 May 2011
10:59 GMT

Private Spaceflight Heralds New Age of Science

Come July, the stage will be set for the largest space competition ever to begin in the United States. With the space shuttles retired, companies offering private spaceflight will take center stage, and with them so will the scientific community.Researchers around the world are itching to get the chance to conduct sc...

28 April 2011
10:07 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Completes Longest Flight Ever

Officials at Virgin Galactic are proud to announce that their private spacecraft was recently able to finish a long test flight, which topped off all other such endeavors to date. The space plane is being developed to carry paying passengers to the edge of space, on suborbital joy rides.The new drop tests took place ...

23 April 2011
05:01 GMT

A New Space Race Has Begun

Whereas the first Space Race was a direct competition between the world's two largest superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, the second one, currently just beginning, will be a confrontation of private entities. Mirroring the international system, where the role of states is dwindling, and that of ...

11 April 2011
09:00 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Flight Inaugurates New SFO Terminal

Accompanied by the Virgin America aircraft “My Other Ride Is a Spaceship,” a private spacecraft developed by Virgin Galactic flew over San Francisco, California on Wednesday, April 6. The flight marked the inauguration of the new Terminal 2 facility. Located at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO...

7 April 2011
08:51 GMT

Scientists Sign Deal to Fly Aboard Virgin Galactic Spacecraft

Officials with Virgin Galactic announced recently that the company has just signed an agreement with the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) of Colorado, for several seats on the upcoming suborbital flights that the corporation is scheduled to being flying. At this point, Virgin is constructing and testing its own fl...

28 February 2011
10:48 GMT

New SpaceShipTwo Glide Test Successful

Officials at Virgin Galactic, one of the world's leading private spaceflight companies, announce that their SpaceShipTwo suborbital aircraft managed to successfully complete a new drop and glide test. This is yet another important milestone that Virgin waltzes past, in preparation for beginning commercial space ...

14 January 2011
18:01 GMT

OSC and Virgin Galactic Join Forces to Develop Spacecraft

Officials at the Loudoun County, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) and New Mexico-based Virgin Galactic announced recently that they signed a cooperation agreement for constructing a new spacecraft, to be proposed for NASA funding. The two companies plan to build a lifting-body spacecraft capable of s...

16 December 2010
03:24 GMT

Virgin Galactic Secretive On Its Space Travel Plans

Engineering teams at private space company Virgin Galactic are currently working very hard on getting their suborbital spacecraft ready to fly commercially, with paying passengers. Though that has not yet materialized, the corporation is already eying orbital flights, but keeps mum about it. The SpaceShipTwo – ...

30 November 2010
03:11 GMT

First Commercial Spaceport Dedicates Runway

On Friday, October 22, officials at Spaceport America participated in a ceremony to inaugurate the facility's main runway. This is the first spaceport to be constructed in the United States specifically for commercial spaceflight.To mark the occasion, Virgin Galactic did a flyover with its SpaceShipTwo craft, wh...

23 October 2010
05:40 GMT

First Glide Test of SpaceShipTwo Was a Success

Officials at Virgin Galactic announced that their SpaceShipTwo suborbital space plane managed to carry out its first successful solo test flight yesterday, October 10.The flight, which saw the aircraft being released by its WhiteKnightTwo carrier, took place above the California-based Mojave Air and Space Port.Though...

11 October 2010
04:22 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Drop Test Could Happen This Fall

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's company Virgin Galactic is on the fast-track towards becoming the first privately-owned corporation to provide suborbital spaceflights on its own ships. Engineers at the company have been testing various spacecraft for many years, but the beginning of a new age in space ...

21 July 2010
03:08 GMT

Virgin Galactic Private Spacecraft's First Crewed Flight

The ship did not try to reach space on this first flight, it remained at a suborbital level, over the California's Mojave Desert and under the protection of its WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve mother ship. The VSS Enterprise is a commercial spacecraft, part of the Virgin Galactic fleet of SpaceShipTwo. The spacecraft fle...

17 July 2010
04:54 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Performs First Test Flight

The private company Virgin Galactic, which has recently taken huge strides towards becoming the first entity to provide affordable access to suborbital altitudes, has another reason to be proud. Yesterday, March 22, it conducted the first of a series of test flights, aimed at assessing the performances of the SpaceSh...

23 March 2010
04:12 GMT

New Law Allows Space Tourism Companies to Develop

Representatives of companies that are currently actively involved in achieving manned, commercial suborbital flight capabilities salute a new set of laws that could make their jobs a lot easier. The officials say that the new piece of legislation that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed into effect on February...

10 March 2010
02:40 GMT

Spaceport America Taking Shape in New Mexico

While only a stuff of fantasy some years ago, Spaceport America is currently becoming a hard reality. In the remote deserts of New Mexico, bulldozers and similar machines are constructing the world's first purpose-built spaceport, a facility designed to accommodate the needs of horizontal landings and take-offs...

28 January 2010
09:39 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Makes Impressive Debut

In what witnesses describe as an impressive, out-of-this-world experience, Virgin Galactic unveiled last night its amazing, new spaceliner prototype, named SpaceShipTwo. After about five years in the making, the spacecraft, which is capable of reaching the upper limits of the atmosphere, can now carry six passengers ...

8 December 2009
02:35 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Will Be Unveiled Soon

Next Monday, Virgin Galactic will unveil its new space plane design. Constructed specifically to deliver paying passengers to suborbital altitudes, at the fringes of outer space, the innovative craft, known as SpaceShipTwo, is bound to make a sensation. The luxurious vehicle will therefore be the base of the company&...

5 December 2009
04:07 GMT

SpaceShipTwo Gets Ready to Fly

As far back as 2004, SpaceShipOne broke a number of barriers, when it became the first privately built craft able to reach suborbital heights on its own. Built by Mojave, California-based Scaled Composites, the aircraft was able to secure the $10-million Ansari X Prize, after it performed three successful flights, in...

5 October 2009
02:53 GMT

Spaceport America Constructions Start Today

Spaceport America will be the first facility in the world to be dedicated solely to commercial, suborbital spaceflight. It will be constructed in New Mexico, the United States, and its groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to take place today, June 19th, at its designated construction site. Already, reports show, hund...

19 June 2009
13:01 GMT

First-Stage Motor Test Successful for Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is a space tourist firm that has been trying for quite some time now to make the dream of suborbital space flights possible for the wealthy. It plans on doing so by using a craft known as SpaceShipTwo, which is able to achieve impressive heights for a few minutes, before plunging back into the atmosph...

1 June 2009
15:01 GMT

Virgin Galactic 'Mothership' Passes Test Flight

The Virgin Galactic company took a giant leap forward towards its objective – that of carrying tourists in suborbital flights – with the successful testing of the White Knight Two launch platform, an odd-shape airplane that will be the backbone of VG's future fleet. The platform has a double-fuselage...

22 December 2008
02:29 GMT

Virgin Galactic and NOAA Working Together for Climate Research

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has signed a collaboration agreement with space craft developer Virgin Galactic (VG) to facilitate its studies of the climate changes on our planet. NOAA monitoring equipment will be placed on board of all VG aircrafts that will be performing orbital flights ...

3 October 2008
05:13 GMT

Virgin Galactic Presents the WhiteKnightTwo

One of the most expected events of the year regarding suborbital space tourism took place yesterday at Scaled Composites in Mojave with the unveiling of Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo, a jet powered carrier aircraft that will act as a launch pad for the SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane. The event signals the...

29 July 2008
05:03 GMT


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