Virgin Galactic

A British company established by Richard Branson's Virgin Group to develop space tourism. Virgin Galactic will own and operate privately-built spacecraft, modeled on Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, winner of the Ansari X prize. The Virgin Galactic spaceship will have eight seats, allowing room for two pilots and six passengers. Construction at Rutan's firm Scaled Composites in Mojave, California, will began in March 2006, with testing to follow. No firm date has yet been set for the first commercial flights.

Virgin Galactic has already taken reservations and deposit commitments for the first year of operations. The ticket price has been set at about £100,000 ($160,000) and the minimum, fully refundable deposit to secure a spaceship seat is £10,000. In 2005, Virgin Galactic announced it had placed orders for five spaceships and two launch aircraft with options on further systems. It also announced the names of the first 100 people who had signed up to fly in the suborbital craft. They include a woman in her nineties (who learned to skydive when she was 85), and a honeymooning couple from Washington DC. Around 85% of the first flyers are male, and the youngest is just 16.

As of August 2011, Virgin Galactic was analyzing data from 15 successful drop/glide tests in preperation for the next steps, including FAA approval. The first commercial flights are expected in the next 12–16 months.

New Mexico Spaceport

One of the launch sites for the Virgin Galactic spaceship will be a spaceport in New Mexico, called the Spaceport America, built on 27 square miles (70 square kilometers) of state-owned land. Virgin Galactic will be the spaceport's primary but not sole tenant. New Mexico already has agreements in place to host an annual private spaceflight exhibition – the Rocket Racing League – billed as a follow-on to the $10m Ansari X prize. In addition, two start-up commercial space firms, UP Aerospace and StarChaser Industries have set up shop in the southern state. The region has an 4,700-foot (1,433-meter) elevation, which will saves on the amount of jet fuel needed to get the spacecraft to the proper altitude for launch.

In 2007, Virgin announced it would use a spaceport in Sweden as one of the launch sites for its commercial space flights. The company is also eyeing several other locations, including a site near Barcelona, Spain.

External site

Virgin Galactic home page

Related categories

• AEROSPACE AND RELATED COMPANIES
• MANNED SPACEFLIGHT

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Encyclopedia of Alternative Energy & Sustainable Living
Encyclopedia of History

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