VIRGIN GALACTIC

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic, LLC, is a part of Sir Richard's Part of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group. It is the world's first ever 68 miles commercial spaceship, which is supposed to take the passengers to the edge of the space.

In 2003, during an impromptu visit of the hangars of Scaled Composites, Mr. Whitehorn, a right arm of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, noticed a strangely shaped device. Whitehorn was initially visiting the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, a giant motorized glider, sponsored by Virgin Airlines, intended to sail around the world nonstop. Curiosity piqued, however Whitehorn gets no response from Burt Rutan, chief engineer, the sponsor of this unit. It was later learned that the sponsor was Paul Allen, co founder of Microsoft. It is this device that will compete under the name of his SpaceShipOne with White Knight carrier aircraft to the famous Ansari X Prize. On October 4, 2004, the 2nd landing SpaceShipOne successfully completed by the same machine, Scaled Composites and Burt Rutan won the prize of 10 million. It was then that Richard Branson who has known him very long to see him back with his first draft Astronautics Company: Virgin Galactic. Paul Allen does not want to follow up commercial project; Burt Rutan therefore had a flying machine that won the XPrize, ready to be put into operation. Burt Rutan and Richard Branson concluded an association.

On December 7th, the company Virgin Galactic was the first company to show the public long-awaited ship for space tourists SpaceShipTwo, which was developed last five years. The first test flights he will make in 2010. CEO, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson (Richard Branson), first presented his child audience in California's Mojave Desert. In the presence of guest of honor of Arnold Schwarzenegger's new ship dubbed the "hint" to the epic Star Trek - VSS (Virgin Space Ship) Enterprise. Suborbital shuttle is made of carbon composites; the magnitude of its wings is 8.23 meters, maximum speed - 4200 miles per hour.

Recall flight pattern, waiting for a space tourist: the aircraft carrier WhiteKnightTwo lift aircraft and 16-kilometer mark. Then there will be undocking SpaceShipTwo, and the further way he has done completely independently. Entire flight will last two and a half hours, but the main attraction - only five or six minutes that passengers spend in weightlessness. It is this device that will compete under the name of his SpaceShipOne with White Knight carrier aircraft to the famous Ansari X Prize.

Mission Statement

To be the first ever sub-orbital commercial air service provider in the world and reach an altitude of 68 miles above the earth with a modest ticket price. Its goal is to make possible the journey into space.

Purpose

Virgin Galactic plans to send into orbit 500 passengers per year at a cost of U.S. $ 200,000 each, at an altitude of 100 km with a total of 3 to 4 minutes in weightlessness. To date, only about 500 astronauts took off from ...