Category: Virgin Galactic

Catching up with the companies from 10 years ago

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Blue Origin, Companies, Lockheed Martin, News, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Reaction Engines, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace

There’s been some remarkable progress in the industry between 2014 and 2024. SpaceX dominated headlines with numerous achievements. They perfected their reusable rocket technology, dramatically reducing launch costs. The Falcon Heavy made its debut, and the Starship program progressed rapidly. By 2024, SpaceX had conducted multiple crewed missions to the International Space Station and was … Read More “Catching up with the companies from 10 years ago” »

Virgin Galactic Breaks Own Altitude Record

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Companies, News, Technology, Virgin Galactic

Now that 2014 is finally here, Virgin Galactic‘s first commercial flight with its WhiteKnightTwo / SpaceShipTwo combo edges ever so closer to reality with every day that goes past. A few days ago, they launched SpaceShipTwo 71,000ft up in the sky and tested several critical features in the process, as Virgin Galactic’s Chief Pilot Dave … Read More “Virgin Galactic Breaks Own Altitude Record” »

Virgin Galactic Teams Up With TV Show

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Companies, News, Virgin Galactic

About a month ago, we covered Mars One, the organisation founded by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp that is planning to have people settle on Mars. Interestingly, their main source of income for this enterprise will be a reality-TV program about those colonists… fast forward to this week, and here we have it: Virgin Galactic is … Read More “Virgin Galactic Teams Up With TV Show” »

Virgin Galactic is expanding at the top

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Companies, News, People, Virgin Galactic

Sir Richard Branson‘s Virgin Galactic is pushing things into high gear, with the recent appointment of two heavy hitters. At the start of July it announced the appointment of Doug Shane as Executive Vice President and General Manager of The Spaceship Company (TSC) which as you might remember from reading here, began as a joint … Read More “Virgin Galactic is expanding at the top” »

The Cost Of Space Travel, As Virgin Galactic Ups Prices…

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News, Virgin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace

Space travel will become a reality soon, so let’s have a look at what it would cost to, even for a brief moment, go above 100km (where space officially starts) and become an astronaut. Virgin Galactic‘s WhiteKnightTwo airplane will carry SpaceShipTwo with two pilots and six passengers to an altitude of 16 km (or 50.000 … Read More “The Cost Of Space Travel, As Virgin Galactic Ups Prices…” »

WhiteKnightTwo

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News, Technology, Virgin Galactic

The launch vehicle that Virgin Galactic will be using as part of its two-stage approach to sub-orbital spaceflight is the WhiteKnightTwo (also known as WK2), with the first one christened VMS Eve after Richard Branson‘s mother and the second one will be named after Steve Fossett, that other adventurer who sadly had a less than … Read More “WhiteKnightTwo” »

Virgin Galactic & The Spaceship Company

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Companies, News, Virgin Galactic

Tracing back the technology used by Virgin Galactic, we have to check in with Scaled Composites, the company founded by Burt Rutan. As you can tell by this video they know how to not take everything too seriously but make no mistake, this team is working on cutting edge technology to get commercial spaceflight off … Read More “Virgin Galactic & The Spaceship Company” »

Virgin Galactic

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Companies, News, Virgin Galactic

To start our series of company profiles, there’s none better than Virgin Galactic. Led by the charismatic Sir Richard Branson who built out his Virgin empire through a variety of different industries and ideas, they are planning to provide sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public, along with suborbital space science missions and orbital launches of … Read More “Virgin Galactic” »

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo breaks the sound barrier for the first time

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News, Technology, Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic‘s SpaceShipTwo breaks sound barrier in first rocket-powered flight – check out the video: SpaceShipTwo firing its engines Sir Richard said in a statement: “For the first time, we were able to prove the key components of the system, fully integrated and in flight. Today’s supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion … Read More “Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo breaks the sound barrier for the first time” »