Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company founded by the English billionaire Richard Branson in 2004.

A mother ship and its spaceplane (the middle fuselage)
A mother ship without its spaceplane. This mother ship is White Knight Two. It was made by Scaled Composites (a company)
Looking from underneath: a mother ship and its spaceplane (the middle fuselage).

Flights

  • In May 2021 one of the company's spaceplanes took people into space.[1][2]
  • On 11 July 2021, Richard Branson and three employees were passengers on a flight, up to an altitude of 86 km (53 mi); the flight had two pilots.[3] However, the rocket plane Unity flew outside restricted airspace;[4][5] That happened for 1 minute and 41 seconds. The Federal Aviation Administration allowed [any] SpaceShipTwo rocket plane to fly again [from] September 2021, after deciding to expand (or make larger) the restricted airspace around the vehicle's flight range.[6]

Newer kind of spaceplanes

  • a SpaceShip III (SS3 or SS III) was shown in March 2021, but the first one - the VSS Imagine - has not flown (as of Spring 2022).[7] When in operation, it can do space tourism; It will not do point-to-point transportation (such as flying from London to Sydney).
  • the Delta spaceplanes are supposed to be ready in 2025, according to the company in July 2022; The next generation of mothership should also be ready by 2025.[8] The Delta spaceplanes will do the same things as a SpaceShip III.[9]

Website

References


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