Virgin Galactic’s Will Whitehorn combines industrial research with luxury goods
Martin Waller
The Times of London
“Mr. Whitehorn, who joined Virgin in 1987 as public relations man and then increasingly took on a managerial role, became president of Virgin Galactic in 2004.
The first task was to demonstrate there was a big enough market to justify putting the funds into what was, literally, a blue-sky venture. “We went out and decided to try to sell tickets,” he says. “We thought the easiest place to go first was people who wanted to go into space.”
The second phone call came, improbably, from Ms. [Victoria] Principal, who has since her days on the Dallas set built a large cosmetics business. Within months they had $10 million in deposits from 50 people.”
Well, the mogul who loves saying “You’re fired!” is himself going to get fired…all the way up into space.
Yes, the star of The Apprentice has forked over $200,000 to Virgin Galactic for a suborbital space flight. So, you’re asking, how long will it be before we see that publicity-shy New Yorker barking out orders, mugging for the camera, and watching as his toupee floats off into its own orbit?
If we’re lucky, never. The guy going into space is actually Bill Cullen, star of the Irish version of The Apprentice - a show that hasn’t even aired yet. Which is probably why most people have never heard of him. And why few people outside Ireland will really care when he actually does fly.
In what could be a substantial tax break for Sir Richard Branson and uber-rich space tourists, the Swedish government is close to classifying Virgin Galactic space tourism flights as sounding rockets.
Hyperbola’s Rob Coppinger reports that a government review has concluded there are no barriers to classifying suborbital tourism flights flown out of Spaceport Sweden as sounding rockets. Officials are hoping the Ministry of Commerce will approve the idea.
This move would be financially advantageous for both Virgin Galactic and its wealthy clientele. Space News reported earlier this year that Swedish officials were looking to put the flights into the same category as hot air balloon rides and sounding rockets because the value added tax (VAT) on these activities is lower. Otherwise, Sweden’s higher value-added taxes would kick in, adding as much as 25 percent to the $200,000 ticket.
The move would not require any changes in Swedish law, easing the way for Branson’s company to begin tourism flights from Kiruna early in the next decade. Coppinger reports that the Swedish government, which faces elections within two years, might have a difficult time getting new laws passed before the vote. The next government might not be as amenable to providing a lower tax rate for joyriding millionaires.
Virgin Galactic has become the latest company to embrace social networking, signing a deal with introNetworks. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company will build a system to connect customers who have signed up suborbital flights aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo vehicle.
“Since our inception five years ago, we’ve created smart social networks for companies of varying sizes and personalities, but always within the confines of our planet,” introNetworks CEO Mark Sylvester said in a press release. “By working with the visionaries at Virgin Galactic we have the opportunity to use our technology and creativity to help connect individuals who share a passion to boldly go where only a handful of individuals have gone before.”
The system is set to be launched later this month, corresponding with the July 28 roll out of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft in Mojave, Calif.
“As a company that has always looked beyond what’s attainable today, we look for partners that share our vision and introNetworks definitely fits that mold,” said David Clark, Virgin Galactic’s Astronaut Relations guru. “We’re looking forward to working with introNetworks to provide our future astronauts with a private and secure network around which they can build a very special community.”
Alan Boyle helps the space tourism industry celebrate its fourth “birthday” with a piece over at MSNBC. Or, more accurately, he marks the anniversary of Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites ushering in the “age of privately developed spaceflight” with the first suborbital flight of SpaceShipOne.
Boyle reviews the progress since that date, noting the only predictable thing is the industry’s unpredictability. Virgin Galactic’s first suborbital tourist flight is still about two years away, which is more or less where it was back in June 2004.
For his part, Rutan professes to have been so caught up building SpaceShipTwo that he plum forgot about the whole anniversary thing until Boyle reminded him. This folksy “ahh shucks” response may be designed to minimize the four years that have passed since that historic flight. Or things are so far behind schedule that he genuinely did forget.
Whatever the case, the legendary designer is not as active as he once was in Scaled Composites, which is now fully owned by defense colossus Northrop Grumman. Rutan, who is still recovering from open heart surgery in February, stepped down as the company’s president earlier this month. Sources who have seen him give speeches in recent months report that he has a tendency to meander off topic into tangents, a sign of how much the surgery has affected him.
Meanwhile, Space.com’s Tariq Malik looks at a couple of upcoming space tourism events: Virgin Galactic’s scheduled July 28 rollout of its WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, which will haul SpaceShipTwo aloft; and Space Adventures’ October launch of publicity shy Richard Garriott, who will be the latest billionaire to use the taxpayer-funded International Space Station as an orbiting hotel.
Virgin Galactic plans to roll out its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft in Mojave, Calif. on July 28, according to published reports. The London-based company has invited 254 would-be space tourists who have plopped down $20,000 to $200,000 for suborbital joyrides to the ceremony.
WhiteKnightTwo is expected to fly in September, Leonard David reports at Space.com. Company president Will Whitehorn tells David that Virgin has planned an “incredibly conservative” test flight program for the mother ship and SpaceShipTwo before flying passengers on suborbital tourism flights.
The roll out will be coordinated with the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2008 air show in Wisconsin, which runs from July 28 to August 3.
Continue reading ‘Virgin Galactic to Roll Out WhiteKnightTwo in July; Team to Visit Oshkosh Air Show’
Burt Rutan, Designer Of SpaceShipOne, Steps Down as Scaled President
AP
Burt Rutan, inventor of the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space, stepped down as president of Scaled Composites LLC, the company announced Wednesday.
Rutan gave up his day-to-day responsibilities at Scaled, which he founded in 1982. Scaled Vice President Douglas B. Shane was promoted to president, while Rutan will remain at the company as chief technology officer and chairman emeritus….
Rutan has been recovering from open-heart surgery in February to fix a disorder known as constrictive pericarditis, in which the sac covering the heart is inflamed.
Rob Coppinger takes a look at developments in human spaceflight over at his Hyperbola blog, including:
- Virgin Galactic’s plan to roll out its White Knight carrier aircraft in about two months’ time;
- EADS-Astrium’s proposal for an ATV-derived capsule, with photos of a mockup unveiled at the Berlin Air Show (the BBC also has a story);
- a six-person capsule being jointly studied by Europe and Russia for possible launch on the Zenit;
- Mitsubuishi Heavy Industries‘ reusable space plane roadmap;
- a proposal for ESA to assist European companies in developing space tourism.
In related news, Virgin Galactic and the National Space Society have announced a new Space Ambassadors program. The program will train people to go forth and spread the word about the great benefits of space exploration, NSS and Virgin Galactic in their communities. One lucky ambassador will get to fly into space aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. Virgin and NSS have not decided how the winner will be chosen.
The Boston Globe’s Drake Bennett takes a look at lunar property rights and other space settlement issues in a story titled, “My space: If we really want to explore space, maybe we should sell it off to the highest bidders.”
Writing for The Sunday Times, Mike Peake is worried that Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic flights will replicate the experience with one of the billionaire’s other travel ventures.
“To get an idea of what the flight into space will really be like, you have to extrapolate from the experience of riding on one of Beardie’s Virgin trains. They’ll have closed the buffet before you even arrive in space and then the craft will be kept in a holding stack for four hours before you can land, during which time the air-conditioning will be switched off and the air will smell like the steam from a pressure cooker full of cabbage. Then, when you write to Branson at Necker Island to complain, you’ll get an automated reply from the customer services department in Slough.”
Speaking of which, New Mexico officials are pushing ahead with plans to build Spaceport America, where Virgin Galactic is set to become an anchor tenant. Next up: a public vote in Otera County on a tax increase to support construction. The Alamogordo Daily News has the latest. The Las Cruces Sun-News also has an update here.
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.