Speaking in Edinburgh this week, Virgin Galactic chief Will Whitehorn predicted that space flights could begin from his native Scotland within five to six years, The Scotsman reports:
“Mr Whitehorn said space flights from RAF Lossiemouth in Moray in 2013-14 could follow the first Virgin Galactic trips from New Mexico in two years’ time. Test flights from the Mojave Desert on the US west coast begin in two weeks.”
Continue reading ‘Whitehorn: Virgin Galactic to Fly from Lossiemouth in Scotland by 2014′
Richard Branson interview - Stars in his eyes
Scotland on Sunday
“So far, 80,000 people have registered an interest in being among the six passengers for the inaugural Virgin Galactic trip, and 286 have paid deposits, including physicist Stephen Hawking, the environmentalist James Lovelock and former Dallas actress Victoria Principal.
“‘We are now holding $40m in deposits from a huge range of people,’ says [Virgin Galactic President Will] Whitehorn. ‘In July we unveiled White Knight Two, the world’s largest carbon-fibre aircraft, in the Mojave desert, California. By the time this article is in print we will have begun months of test flights. The next stage is the actual aircraft, which we will unveil next summer, ahead of our first commercial flights to space by early 2010.’”
Super-rich take ultimate flight from credit crunch - into space
Daily Mail
The company said it has sold 11 tickets - costing a whopping $200,000 (£122,000) each - in October. Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn said: ‘We normally sell about six or seven a month, so this is a big increase. Maybe the super rich are having to liquidate their positions and don’t know what to do with the cash.’
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.”
Spaceport Sweden and Virgin Galactic officials will provide an update on their efforts at creating a spaceport in Kiruna, Sweden on April 1. Below is the official announcement.
SWEDISH SPACE CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE
Many steps towards personal suborbital spaceflight from Kiruna have been taken. To be precise 26 work packages, regarding everything from accommodation to space operations and astronauts’ timetables, have successfully been accomplished during the last 14 months. The Spaceport Sweden team will present the conclusions of the work packages so far and also the way forward.
Virgin Galactic has also been intensely involved in the above mentioned work packages, and has simultaneously focused on several other current topics. Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic will be providing latest information on the recently unveiled designs of the prototype commercial space ship and carrier aircraft which are now close to completion at Scaled Composites in Mojave California. He will also be sharing the vision for Virgin Galactic including the likely diversification of the business into the areas of space science and payload deployment as well as continuing work towards flights from Spaceport Sweden.
Continue reading ‘Kiruna Spaceport Advances; Update Planned for April 1′
A brief round-up of some recent developments on the space tourism front:
The Daily Record has an interview with Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn. The Edinburgh-born Scot recalls his excitement at the age of 9 when he watched Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin walk on the moon. Now he’s getting his chance to make space travel a dream for people who are not astronauts.
Meanwhile, space tourist Richard Garriott has teamed up with the Challenge Center for a joint education program. Garriott will give science lessons during his flight to the International Space Station in October. Students also are encouraged to submit questions to Garriott through their local Challenger Centers. The astronaut will hold several live conversations with students and Challenger Centers during his flight.
The Challenger Center also is sponsoring a competition for students of all ages to submit designs for a t-shirt or mission match that would represent Garriott’s educational activities during the flight.
