BA “dirty tricks” pushed Virgin into space – Whitehorn MEETTHEBOSS.TV
Virgin’s latest plans to push travellers into space was the direct result of what Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn calls Brtish Airways “dirty tricks” campaign of 1993.
Richard Branson after getting drenched by some Virgin Galactic staffers.
Budget Space Travel with Virgin Edinburgh Napier News
Whitehorn delivered a lecture to an audience at Edinburgh Napier University this week on the Virgin Galactic project in which he reassured listeners that the cost of a ticket is expected to drop gradually to just $90,000 per person…
Richard Branson after his first flight aboard WhiteKnightTwo at the Oshkosh airshow.
Rocket Man Arabian Business
Richard Branson has been on the receiving end of a fair few jokes in his time. One of the more memorable was in 2000, when British satirical magazine Private Eye ran a front cover of the entrepreneur dressed as Santa Claus with the caption; ‘No-one believes in you anymore.’
Virgin Trains, his railway operation, was coming under fire for its shocking time-keeping record and Branson himself had just made a failed bid for the franchise of the UK’s National Lottery.
There was a panel discussion at the Oshkosh airshow last night that featured Scaled Composites Burt Rutan and Bob Morgan and Virgin Galactic’s Will Whitehorn. Some highlights:
Virgin Galactic's VMS Eve during its third test flight in March.
AMEInfo Radio has a two-part interview (Part 1 and Part II) with Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn. Not much new, just a few details and assertions:
Economy is not affecting sales very much; at $200,000 apiece, you either have the money to go or you don’t;
Just sold 3 tickets at a Grand Prix event in Bahrain;
The experience will take require four days for the training and spaceflight;
Unlike Soyuz orbital flights, SpaceShipTwo doesn’t require months of technical and language training (of course, you’re talking about 4-5 minutes of weightlessness vs. 12-14 days).
Some Virgin employees will go into space as part of test flight program prior to paying passengers;
Very interested in flying out of the Persian Gulf, where there is a lot of interest in flying (12 tickets thus far);
United States is biggest area, but also a lot of interest in the UK;
In some cases, the nationals of countries will be the first ones from those nations to go into space;
In 10-15 years, space tourism will be “regularlized” with 4-5 spaceports around the world conducting flights; will carry more people into space in the first year than have gone there since 1961.
Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo with Burt Rutan and Richard Branson
UK ‘yet to embrace space tourism’ BBC News
The UK is ill-prepared to exploit the emerging commercial spaceflight sector, says the president of Virgin Galactic.
Will Whitehorn said Britain lacked the regulatory framework that would help the industry grow but which would also ensure the necessary safety standards. Speaking at a space tourism conference in London, he said current rules would prevent Virgin launches from the UK.
Scaled Composites has completed the first series of tests on the rocket motor for the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft, clearing a major milestone toward testing of the suborbital tourism vehicle, Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said on Thursday.
Artists conception of WhiteKnightTwo and the SpaceShipTwo space tourism vehicle. (Credit: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn has been making predictions about the future of travel this week:
Long-haul trips could be made in spaceships instead of planes in 20 years’ time if Virgin’s efforts to commercialize space travel succeed, the president of Virgin Galactic told Reuters in an interview.
Gizmodo has an interview with Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn. He gives a few interesting details about WhiteKnightTwo and predicts that the $200,000 cost of a flight will be reduced to some much smaller number once blah blah blah and yada yada yada are achieved.
WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo (credit: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic is in “advanced discussions” with investors in Dubai about creating a spaceport there for launches of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle.
The National Space Society’s blog has a few updates on the International Space Development Conference, which is set for May 28-31 in Orlando.
Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic, has been added to the program. NSS is also selling tickets for lunches and dinners which will feature some prominent space figures.
It’s further evidence that Scaled Composites, for all its expertise, did not realise the degree that a two fuselage aircraft with a Boeing 757 scale wing would require larger vertical fins…
The big question is, can this WK2 prototype carry SpaceShipTwo (SS2)? A provocative question but while landing in a 15kt crosswind presents such a challenge the carriage of SS2 is not going to occur any time soon.
Well, it’s Virgin Galactic week over at Flight International. (Isn’t that every week? Well, not exactly….but Rob Coppinger does write a lot about Richard Branson’s tourism company.)
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NMSA PRESS RELEASE
The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) is accepting applications for a Deputy Director to oversee the daily operations of Spaceport America, the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport. This position announcement marks another significant milestone as the historic project transitions from a construction site to an operating spaceport.
WYLE PRESS RELEASE
Wyle is part of an academic-industry team that has been selected to support a new Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation.
The center is a partnership of academia, industry, and government, developed for the purpose of creating a world-class consortium that will address current and future [...]
Space Tourism Sector A Good Opportunity For Insurance Firms
Space Travel
As space tourism matures, it holds tremendous opportunity for insurance companies to offer risk coverage to those on-board, similar to what they do for passengers of airlines, industry officials said.