Virgin’s Galactic has a 5-5 plan for its growth - order five additional spacecraft from Scaled Composites and turn a profit within five years beginning suborbital tourism launches in 2010.
“In the short term, we have firm orders for five spaceships and options for seven … We believe there is a very strong market,” said Virgin Galactic Director Alex Tai during an appearance at the Singapore Airshow.
Read the full Reuters story here. Public Radio also has a short piece about Virgin Galactic, which you can listen to here.
Over at Hobby Space, Clark S. Lindsey reviews progress during the last year in commercial space activity and lays out what he believes is a believable timeline for the next dozen years. It’s a good review of current activities and challenges as well as future plans, so it’s worth a look.
Scaled Composites could still face a criminal or civil prosecution over the fatal explosion at its Mojave, Calif. facility that killed three workers and injured three others, according to a Flight Global story.
California safety officials levied citations and fines totally $28,000. The company has appealed the decision, a process which Flight Global reports could take up to a year. The appeal process would not affect any civil or criminal prosecutions that authorities might decide to launch.
Audley Travel boss Craig Burkinshaw has booked a suborbital flight aboard a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo vehicle. The head of the English travel company forked over about $200,000 to be among the first to fly aboard Sir Richard Branson’s spaceliner.
There is a brief account at Travel Weekly and a more detailed Oxford Mail story. The Star also has a piece in which it quotes Craig’s proud mum Mary.
You can also follow his adventures at his new website.
Scaled Composites is appealing $28,000 in fines levied by California safety officials relating to a July explosion last year that killed three employees and injured three others.
The Bakersfield Californian has details, as does Space.com here. Neither story indicates why the company is appealing the fines, which were levied for citations alleging the company failed to adequately train workers and to maintain a safe working environment. The company has not commented publicly.
CalOSHA’s accident report indicates the employees were watching a cold-flow test from behind a chain link fence when the explosion occurred. Aviation Week reports this preliminary report points to an oxidizer tank as the cause of the explosion. The company is developing the suborbital tourist vehicle SpaceShipTwo for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
A report by California safety officials indicates that Scaled Composites workers were watching a rocket propellant system test through a chain-link fence when an explosion occurred and killed three of them, according to an AP account.
The report comes a month after California fined the company $28,000 for alleged safety violations at the company’s Mojave facility. The AP reports that Scaled Composites is appealing the citations and the fine.
Cosmic Log’s Alan Boyle examines some of the unsung designers and engineers working with Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites, including Matt Stinemetze, Bob Morgan, Jim Tighe, Pete Siebold, and Luke Colby.
Boyle also rounds up the latest happens at Rocketplane Global, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Space Adventures, Bigelow and other leading commercial space companies.
Cosmic Log’s Alan Boyle has an interesting interview with Scaled Composites’ Burt Rutan on progress developing SpaceShipTwo. Rutan expects to build 40-45 of the vehicles over the next dozen years with the aim of flying about 100,000 on suborbital hops.
Rutan also says the company does still not know the cause of the explosion that killed three employees last summer. California safety officials issued citations totaling $25,000 for safety violations at the Mojave facility.