Tag Archive for 'SpaceShipTwo'Page 3 of 6

Branson: Tourism Flights Set for Late 2010

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on May 18, 2008
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The Sunday Mirror quotes Richard Branson as saying that Virgin Galactic tourism flights are still about 30 months away. The British billionaire, speaking in Kenya where his company has rebuilt a school, said that he expects to begin flights in November 2010 after a rigorous test flight program for SpaceShipTwo and its White Knight carrier aircraft.

“NASA have [sic] lost three per cent of all their customers so our testing will be intense,” Branson said. “We are planning 50 test flights before we go up so we will be confident of getting it right.”

He plans to take his parents and children on the first tourism flight - but not his wife, Joan. “She’s not terribly keen on the idea of the kids coming up with me although I think she’s not too bothered about what might happen to me!” Branson joked.

Virgin Launches School Competition, Seeks More Agents in Middle East

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on May 1, 2008
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Virgin Galactic has launched a competition for English schoolchildren. First prize: a trip to American West to watch a flight of - wait for it - Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo as it carries tourists into space.

Students 11-14 years old will work in teams of four to create a marketable product that demonstrates one of the principles the company uses in its space program.  Mission Virgin Galactic is being co-sponsored by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Aeronautical Society.

“Mission Virgin Galactic sets out to reinvigorate interest in the sheer excitement of recent developments in engineering and their context to new technologies in aerospace and transportation generally,” said Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn.

“We have to find solutions to the issues this planet faces and it will only be through a new generation of enthusiastic and environmentally conscious young engineers, entrepreneurs and scientists that we will achieve it. Hopefully, the lure of one day going to space can help to spur that spirit,” he added.

Virgin Galactic also is seeking more agents to sell its space flights in the Middle East. ArabianBusiness.com has the full story.

More Q1 Numbers: Raytheon’s Profits Up, Grumman’s Down

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on April 25, 2008
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Buoyed by increased defense sales, Raytheon reported first-quarter profits of $400 million, or 93 cents per share. The world’s fifth largest defense contractor’s 15-percent growth exceeded Wall Street expectations, and company officials re-iterated earlier guidance double-digit profit growth this year.

Associated Press Story
Raytheon Press Release

Northrop Grumman reported that first-quarter earnings fell 32 percent after “the company was forced to take a charge due to rising costs and delays with an amphibious assault ship program it is building for the U.S. Navy,” the Associated Press reported.

Northrop Grumman does extensive aerospace work. Last year, it purchase Scaled Composites, the Mojave, Calif.-based company that is building the SpaceShipTwo suborbital tourism vehicle.

Quiet NM Town Divided on Eve of Crucial Spaceport Vote

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on April 20, 2008
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The small, quiet town of Truth or Consequences, NM - best known for its thriving arts community and its access to hot springs and the state’s largest lake - has been thrust into the center of a debate over our future in space.

On Tuesday, voters in this community of 7,000 will help decide the fate of Spaceport America, New Mexico’s ambitious effort to build a gateway to the heavens. Residents in T or C and throughout Sierra County will vote on a .25 cent increase in the gross receipts tax to help fund the $198 million facility in the southern part of the county. A “yes” vote is crucial to forming a tax district with neighboring Doña Ana and Otera counties.

The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that the vote could go either way. A pro-spaceport tax group, People for Aerospace, has been campaigning heavily throughout Sierra County, promoting the project’s economic benefits. However, other residents have opposed the tax increase, placing anti-tax signs on T or C streets and staging a rally over the weekend.

Continue reading ‘Quiet NM Town Divided on Eve of Crucial Spaceport Vote’

Branson to Officiate Over First Space Wedding; Will Princess Beatrice be the Bride?

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on April 20, 2008
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Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson could preside over the first marriage in space aboard his SpaceShipTwo vehicle next year, The Daily Mail reports.

Although the pair is unidentified, the article notes that British Princess Beatrice, the 19-year-old daughter of Sarah Ferguson, wants to be the first royal married in space. Beatrice, fifth in line to the British throne, is involved with Dave Clark, who works in Virgin Galactic’s marketing department.

The couple can probably get a discount on the $200,000 per person flight, although Beatrice would have no trouble paying for it. The Mail reports that the club-hopping royal was recently looking at a £4.25 million ($8.5 million) four-bedroom, four-bathroom house in the tony London neighborhood of Belgravia.

Whoever the bride and groom are, they presumably would be married during the roughly five minutes of weightlessness they would enjoy during the suborbital flight, which will fly to an altitude of around 68 miles.

Presiding over weddings has become somewhat of a sideline for the brash, publicity savvy Branson. Last year, he became a minister for a day through an online church to officiate over the wedding of Virgin America marketing director Dimitrios Papadognonas and Coco Jones during a Virgin America Airlines flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas. The British billionaire also helped officiate over Google founder Larry Page’s wedding, which was held on Branson’s private Caribbean island.

It’s an interesting approach to nuptials. Weddings are usually about putting the couple up on a pedestal. One never upstages the bride and groom - especially the bride. Having a world famous, publicity-seeking billionaire presiding over the ceremony would tend to do precisely that. Unless, of course, you’re British royalty and outrank him.

On the other hand, who’s going to tell Richard Branson that you don’t want him to preside over the first wedding ever held in outer space aboard his own space plane? Probably no one. I suppose you would treat it as an honor and roll with it.

Virgin Galactic Dangles Free Spaceflight in Front of NM Voters

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on April 18, 2008
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Only days before a crucial public vote on funding Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic has dangled the offer of one free spaceflight per year if residents approve a tax increase to help fund the spaceport.

The Las Cruces Sun-Times, quoting an Albuquerque Journal story, reports that Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn made the offer on Tuesday during a public forum in Truth or Consequences. The London-based company is expected to be an anchor tenant at the desert facility.

Voters in T or C and throughout Sierra County will go to the polls on Tuesday to vote on a .25 cent increase in the gross receipts tax. Approval is required to form a three-county tax district with Doña Ana and Otera counties.

Only one resident in the three counties would be able to go on a suborbital flight per year. The flights are being retailed at $200,000 each.

The vote in Sierra County is expected to be close, as was the one last year in Doña Ana County. (Otera residents have yet to vote.) The sprawling, sparsely populated county has about 12,600 residents, one in five of whom live below the poverty line. More than 28 percent of residents are 65 years or older. And Sierra County’s median household income in 2004 was only $23,821, less than two-thirds of New Mexico’s $37,838 median income.

A Corporate Jet? That’s Soooo 2007…

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on April 14, 2008
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ArabianBusiness.com reports that a Dubai-based company has chartered an entire Virgin Galactic suborbital tourism flight for its top management.

The unnamed company has made a $500,000 deposit on the $1.2 million flight, which will carry six executives to an altitude of about 110 kilometers (69 miles). The flight is expected to take place in 2010. More details will be released in July.

Virgin Looks at Launch Sites in Australia

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on April 12, 2008
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AdelaideNow has a story about Virgin Galactic’s plans to establish a spaceport in Australia for suborbital tourism flights. The London-based company is considering launch sites in South Australia’s Outback and Victoria.

“We do have plans to launch from venues worldwide and Australia is in our long-term plans,” said Virgin Galactic’s Carolyn Wincer. “South Australia and Victoria would be good places to launch from.”

Virgin May Offer World’s Most Expensive Hot Air Balloon Ride at Kiruna

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on April 8, 2008
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Swedish space officials are developing a rather creative tax regime in their efforts to lure Virgin Galactic to fly suborbital tourism flights out of Kiruna, Space News‘ Peter B. de Selding reports.

“Swedish authorities…hope to lower the costs and regulatory barriers to the operation by having it classed as a sounding rocket and given the tax advantages of hot-air balloon flights,” de Selding reports.

Virgin Galactic and Swedish Space Corp. officials discussed the plan at a press conference on April 1. As near as I can tell, this was not an April Fool’s joke, unlike a plan announced by Virgin and Google the same day to send humans on one-way trips to Mars.

The problem is Sweden’s value-added taxes, which could impose a levy of up to 25 percent on Virgin Galactic’s operations. Officials are investigating whether the tourist flights, which cost $200,000 per person, could be classified under a much lower VAT regime that covers the operations of hot-air balloons.

Virgin Galactic Sells First Charter Flight, Plans to Roll Out White Knight 2 in May

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on March 29, 2008
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Rob Coppinger has posted detailed notes of his January 24 conversation with Virgin Galactic commercial director Stephen Attenborough over at his Hyperbola blog on Flight Global. These notes are in addition to an article that Coppinger wrote examining the company’s business plan and SpaceShipTwo’s rising costs (now estimated at nearly $250 million).

Attenborough had some interesting things to say:

  • The company plans to roll the White Knight 2 carrier aircraft out of the factory in May;
  • Virgin gained 25 new customers in a one-month period from December to January;
  • An American has booked an entire flight as a charter (6 passengers);
  • Many of the space tourists are in their 40’s and 50’s and were inspired by the Apollo program;
  • Six customers have asked for refunds, two for health reasons and the rest due to “changing circumstances.”