More on Virgin Galactic...

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#21 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Jul 14, 2021 7:07 am

Pinky the pilot wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 5:23 am
Anyone know exactly what altitude was reached?
282,773 feet.
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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#22 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Aug 07, 2021 2:45 pm

Virgin Galactic offering $450,000 tickets to sub-orbital space

https://www.abc15.com/news/national/vir ... ital-space

On Wednesday, Virgin Galactic said they were working on its final preparations at its base in New Mexico as the VSS Unity is scheduled to launch into space from Spaceport America sometime in the fall.
By: Scripps NationalPosted at 2:51 PM, Aug 06, 2021 and last updated 3:54 PM, Aug 06, 2021
Virgin Galactic has once again started selling tickets to sub-orbital space.

People can reserve a ride on the aircraft for $450,000. Tickets will be offered first to people who joined the company's "Spacefarer Community" by putting down a $100,000 deposit.

The company originally sold tickets, nearly a decade ago, for between $200,000 and $250,000.

Last month, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and five others successfully flew to the edge of space.

The company says it's now prepared to begin commercial operations in 2022.

There are six seats on each hour-long flight.

More than 600 people are reportedly on the waiting list for the trip.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#23 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon Aug 23, 2021 8:46 pm

Richard Branson's satellite-launching company Virgin Orbit to go public

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/investin ... index.html

New York (CNN Business)Virgin Orbit, the Richard Branson-backed startup that launches small satellites into space, will make its stock market debut later this year, adding another name to the long list of space-focused companies to go public via reverse merger.

The deal, expected to close in the last three months of 2021, will value Virgin Orbit at $3.2 billion and list the company on the NASDAQ under the ticker VORB.
Virgin Orbit is a separate entity from Virgin Galactic (SPCE), the other space-focused Branson company, which specializes in suborbital space tourism and last month flew Branson himself up for a brief trip to the edge of space. Virgin Orbit spun off from Virgin Galactic in 2017, and the latter company went public via its own SPAC deal in 2019.

Virgin Orbit is solely focused on launching small batches of lightweight satellites into space using its air-launching method. So far, the company has completed three successful flights that've seen its 70-foot-long Launcher One rocket take off from beneath the wing of a Boeing 747 jet (nicknamed "Cosmic Girl") as it flies out over the Pacific Ocean.
SPACs, or special-purpose acquisition companies, have rapidly become a favorite means by which startups — particularly in experimental fields such as spaceflight or self-driving cars — debut on the stock market. SPACs work by taking what's essentially a shell company and listing it on the stock market for the public to invest in while the SPAC controllers search for an acquisition target.
The SPAC that will be taking over Virgin Orbit, for example, is called NextGen Acquisition Corp. II, which was founded by former Goldman Sachs and PerkinElmer excutives. NextGen made its stock market debut in March this year and had a market value of more than $500 million as of Monday morning.
Investors have traditionally been wary of SPAC companies because it has a reputation for attracting companies that couldn't go public with a more traditional IPO, which involves getting the backing of a major bank and clearing numerous regulatory hurdles. But Wall Street is in the midst of a SPAC craze spearheaded in large part by space companies ,such as Virgin Orbit's sister company Virgin Galactic, as well as prominent earth-imaging satellite company Planet and rocket startup Rocket Lab.
After Virgin Orbit's SPAC deal closes, existing investors in Virgin Orbit are expected to retain about 85% ownership over the company. Those investors include Virgin Group, which is essentially Branson's personal investment firm, Mubadala Investment Company, the Emirati sovereign wealth fund, as well as management and employees.
According to public filings posted Monday, Virgin Orbit has about $300 million worth of contracts already lined up, and it expects to be bringing in more than $2 billion in revenue per year by 2026 as it sells services to commercial satellite operators as well as government customers.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#24 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Sep 02, 2021 3:06 pm

FAA says it's investigating problems with Richard Branson's flight to edge of space

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/02/tech/ric ... index.html

New York (CNN Business)The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed late Wednesday it is investigating Richard Branson's flight to space, saying the rocket-powered plane operated by his company, Virgin Galactic, veered off course during its descent.

The FAA's statement came not long after the New Yorker's Nicholas Schmidle reported that warning lights had shown up on the dashboard of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo — signaling that the vehicle was on a wayward trajectory — as the company's billionaire founder, Richard Branson, was riding in it during a minutes-long joyride-slash-PR-event that reached the edge of space. Schmidle also revealed the existence of the FAA investigation.
Virgin Galactic spokesperson Barney Gimbel confirmed in an email to CNN Business that the trajectory of the flight "changed," adding that "when the glide cone message indicated that the pilots should modify the flight path to adjust the trajectory, our pilots did exactly as they were trained and followed the procedures."
In its initial statement Wednesday afternoon, the company defended the safety of the flight, which had been dubbed "Unity 22," saying that it disputes what it termed "the misleading characterizations and conclusions" in Schmidle's article.
"Unity 22 was a safe and successful test flight that adhered to our flight procedures and training protocols. When the vehicle encountered high altitude winds which changed the trajectory, the pilots and systems monitored the trajectory to ensure it remained within mission parameters," the company said.
"Although the flight's ultimate trajectory deviated from our initial plan, it was a controlled and intentional flight path that allowed Unity 22 to successfully reach space and land safely at our Spaceport in New Mexico. At no time were passengers and crew put in any danger as a result of this change in trajectory," it added.
The statement added that the pilots of the spaceplane encountered high-altitude winds, and "responded appropriately to these changing flight conditions."

But in a separate statement in response to the FAA investigation, it also acknowledged that the flight "deviated from our initial plan" and the spacecraft dropped below the altitude it was approved to fly at for one minute and 41 seconds.
"At no time did the ship travel above any population centers or cause a hazard to the public," the company added. "FAA representatives were present in our control room during the flight and in post-flight debriefs. We are working in partnership with the FAA to address the airspace for future flights."
Virgin Galactic did not respond to follow-up questions about the reported warning lights in the cockpit of the spacecraft during Branson's flight.
The pilots of the rocket-powered, supersonic SpaceShipTwo were faced with yellow and red warning indicators as the vehicle veered off course, according to Schmidle's report.
The wayward orientation of the vehicle put the vehicle off kilter for its descent back to Earth, which could have forced it to make an emergency landing in the New Mexican desert, according to the article.
The new report adds to several bombshell scoops Schmidle has had about the company's safety record, which its executives and PR officials have tried to sweep under the rug to save face among Virgin Galactic's wealthy clientele and would-be space travelers.
Branson's flight was only the fourth trip to space that Virgin Galactic has successfully completed following a tragic 2014 test flight that killed one pilot and badly injured another. And of those four trips, at least two have had serious safety issues. A test fight in 2019 — which was the first to include a passenger, Virgin Galactic engineer Beth Moses — nearly ended very differently due to a serious problem with the space plane's wing, according to Schmidle, who also wrote "Test Gods," a recently-published book about Virgin Galactic and years he spent with inside access to the company.

"This should have been a come-to-Jesus moment, not the kind of thing you brush under the rug," Todd Ericson, Virgin Galactic's former vice president of safety, who has since resigned from the company, told Schmidle last year.
Neither the FAA nor Virgin Galactic publicly disclosed the issues associated with the 2019 flight or Branson's flight.
The FAA did not respond to requests for additional comment.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#25 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Sep 02, 2021 5:00 pm

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 3:06 pm
FAA says it's investigating problems with Richard Branson's flight to edge of space

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/02/tech/ric ... index.html

"This should have been a come-to-Jesus moment, not the kind of thing you brush under the rug," Todd Ericson, Virgin Galactic's former vice president of safety, who has since resigned from the company, told Schmidle last year.

Neither the FAA nor Virgin Galactic publicly disclosed the issues associated with the 2019 flight or Branson's flight.

The FAA did not respond to requests for additional comment.

PP
Akin to dropping below the ILS glide slope! Should have triggered an internal review and openess, rather than this apparent cover up.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-des ... ace-flight
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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#26 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Sep 02, 2021 5:56 pm

Virgin Galactic Statement

We dispute the misleading characterizations and conclusions in the New Yorker article published today.

The safety of our crew and passengers is Virgin Galactic’s top priority. Our entire approach to spaceflight is guided by a fundamental commitment to safety at every level, including our spaceflight system, our test flight program and our rigorous pilot training protocol.

Unity 22 was a safe and successful test flight that adhered to our flight procedures and training protocols. When the vehicle encountered high altitude winds which changed the trajectory, the pilots and systems monitored the trajectory to ensure it remained within mission parameters. Our pilots responded appropriately to these changing flight conditions exactly as they were trained and in strict accordance with our established procedures. Although the flights ultimate trajectory deviated from our initial plan, it was a controlled and intentional flight path that allowed Unity 22 to successfully reach space and land safely at our Spaceport in New Mexico. At no time were passengers and crew put in any danger as a result of this change in trajectory.

The Unity 22 flight further reaffirms our technical readiness, our rigorous pilot training program and the inherent safety of our spaceflight system, particularly in light of changing flight conditions. As we move toward commercial service, we are confident we have the right safety culture, policies and processes in place to build and operate a safe and successful business over the long term.

Statement on the FAA

Although the flight’s ultimate trajectory deviated from our initial plan, the Unity 22 flight did not fly outside of the lateral confines of the protected airspace. As a result of the trajectory adjustment, the flight did drop below the altitude of the airspace that is protected for Virgin Galactic missions for a short distance and time (1 minute and 41 seconds) before re-entering restricted airspace that is protected all the way to the ground for Virgin Galactic missions. At no time did the ship travel above any population centers or cause a hazard to the public. FAA representatives were present in the control room during the flight and in post-flight debriefs. We are working in partnership with the FAA to address the airspace for future flights.
http://www.parabolicarc.com/2021/09/01/ ... ce-flight/
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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#27 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Thu Sep 02, 2021 5:58 pm

By all appearances, Richard Branson’s 17-years-in-the-making flight to the edge of space went exactly as planned on July 11. Or at least that was the impression left by Virgin Galactic’s webcast of SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity’s flight test from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

But, for the second time in four suborbital flights, VSS Unity experienced a serious anomaly. The ship with its hybrid engine firing wasn’t rising steeply enough as it soared toward space, Nicholas Schmidle reports in The New Yorker:

Although [pilots David] Mackay and [Mike] Masucci attempted to address their trajectory problem, it wasn’t enough. And now they were accelerating to Mach 3, with a red light glowing in the cockpit. Fortunately for Branson and the three other crew members in the back, the pilots got the ship into space and landed safely. But data retrieved from Flightradar24 shows the vehicle flying outside its designated airspace. An F.A.A. spokesperson confirmed that Virgin Galactic “deviated from its Air Traffic Control clearance” and that an “investigation is ongoing.” A Virgin Galactic spokesperson acknowledged that the company did not initially notify the F.A.A. and that the craft flew outside its designated airspace for a minute and forty-one seconds—flights generally last about fifteen minutes—but said that the company was working with the F.A.A. to update procedures for alerting the agency.…

So, it was a red light. They have those in cars; check the engine or the oil. Well, this one was in a rocket plane and indicated they were off course for reentry and return to the spaceport.

This was a big deal. I once sat in on a meeting, in 2015, during which the pilots on the July 11th mission—Dave Mackay, a former Virgin Atlantic pilot and veteran of the U.K.’s Royal Air Force, and Mike Masucci, a retired Air Force pilot—and others discussed procedures for responding to an entry glide-cone warning. C. J. Sturckow, a former marine and nasa astronaut, said that a yellow light should “scare the ***** out of you,” because “when it turns red it’s gonna be too late”; Masucci was less concerned about the yellow light but said, “Red should scare the crap out of you.” Based on pilot procedures, Mackay and Masucci had basically two options: implement immediate corrective action, or abort the rocket motor. According to multiple sources in the company, the safest way to respond to the warning would have been to abort. (A Virgin Galactic spokesperson disputed this contention.)

The story raises, but does not answer, the question of whether Mackay and Masucci didn’t shut down the engine because Branson was aboard. The Virgin Galactic founder had planned to fly on a later flight test, but Branson moved up his flight so he could fly to space before rival Jeff Bezos’ planned suborbital flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard on July 11.

If the pilots had shut down the engine early, VSS Unity would not have exceeded the 50-mile boundary of space recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration. Virgin Galactic wouldn’t have been able to conduct another flight before Bezos flew on July 20, leaving Branson as the runner up.

Branson denied he had changed the schedule to beat Bezos to space, a claim that was widely dismissed amid derisive comments that the two billionaires were engaged in a dick measuring contest. A source told Parabolic Arc, which broke the story of plans to move up Branson’s flight, that is exactly why the schedule was changed.

So, Virgin Galactic conducted a flight test and found an anomaly. That’s why we test, right?

Yes. Absolutely. However….

The flight had Virgin Galactic’s billionaire founder aboard. And the company put him on an earlier flight so he could beat a rival billionaire to the edge of space. Branson is known for taking a lot of physical risks; his latest autobiography, Finding My Virginity, includes an appendix with 75 incidents during which he could have died.

So, there’s no question he was fine with risking his life; the question is why Virgin Galactic management thought it was a good idea to risk losing someone so important. Flight tests are inherently risky; they are designed to find flaws and problems before you put a vehicle into commercial service.

Just as concerning is what the article revealed about the firing of Mark Stucky, who had been Virgin Galactic’s lead pilot and director of flight test. Stucky had been the main subject of Schmidle’s book, “Test Gods,” an inside look at Virgin Galactic that was published in May. Virgin Galactic is very concerned with its image and how it reflects on the larger Virgin Group. And it seems Stucky had been a bit too candid about problems at Branson’s space tourism company.

After the publication of my book, in May, Stucky was stripped of his flight duties and excluded from key planning meetings ahead of the July 11th event. He watched Branson’s flight from the runway; it was the first mission for which he had no responsibilities after more than a decade on the program. Eight days after Branson’s flight, an H.R. manager booked time on his calendar, and then fired Stucky over Zoom.

Getting fired is bad enough; getting fired by an H.R. rep is uber humiliating. Someone above Stucky on the org chart couldn’t have done it? The man had worked there 10 years.

Still, it couldn’t have come as a complete surprise; the company had stripped Stucky of his responsibilities two months earlier, and it likely kept him around to prevent his departure from raising questions about Virgin Galactic’s safety culture and Branson’s upcoming flight. His firing got minimal attention in the wake of that launch.

There have been questions about SpaceShipTwo’s safety culture ever since Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites announced the program in 2004. Four people have died in two separate accidents, there have been at least four close calls, and safety officials have come and gone with regularity. The most recent departure was Vice President of Safety Todd Ericson, who lost confidence in the company’s safety culture after VSS Unity‘s near-fatal second suborbital flight n February 2019.

A full accounting of these matters is a subject for another day. Suffice to say, nothing I read in the article surprised me. It highlighted issues with the company that I had known about since before the fatal crash of VSS Enterprise in October 2014 that killed Scaled Composites pilot Mike Alsbury and delayed commercial flights by almost eight years.
http://www.parabolicarc.com/2021/09/01/ ... -stripped/
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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#28 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Sep 02, 2021 7:57 pm

FAA bans Virgin Galactic launches while probing Branson trip

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/f ... p-rcna1882

FAA bans Virgin Galactic launches while probing Branson trip
The ban came as the company announced plans to launch three Italian researchers to the edge of space in a few weeks.

Sept. 2, 2021, 11:59 AM MST
By Associated Press
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that Virgin Galactic cannot launch anyone into space again until an investigation is complete into a mishap that occurred during July’s flight with founder Richard Branson.

The ban came as Virgin Galactic announced plans to launch three Italian researchers to the edge of space in a few weeks.

The FAA said the rocketship carrying Branson and five Virgin Galactic employees veered off course during its descent back to New Mexico on July 11. The deviation put the ship outside the air traffic control clearance area.

The FAA is overseeing the probe; it’s responsible for protecting the public during commercial launches and reentries. Crew safety, on the other hand, is outside its jurisdiction. Virgin Galactic insisted Thursday that Branson and everyone else on board were never in any added danger.

“Virgin Galactic may not return the SpaceShipTwo vehicle to flight until the FAA approves the final mishap investigation report or determines the issues related to the mishap do not affect public safety,” the FAA said in a statement.

Virgin Galactic acknowledged the space plane dropped below the protected airspace for one minute and 41 seconds. The spacecraft’s free-flying portion of the up-and-down flight lasted about 15 minutes and reached an altitude of 53.5 miles (86 kilometers).

Virgin Galactic said high-altitude wind caused the change in flight path and insisted the two pilots “responded appropriately.” In a statement, the company said the flight was “a safe and successful test flight that adhered to our flight procedures and training protocols.”

“At no time were passengers and crew put in any danger as a result of this change in trajectory,” the company noted..

Branson ended up beating fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos — founder of Amazon as well as rocket company Blue Origin — into space by nine days. Bezos launched July 20 with three others from West Texas.

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are vying to sell seats to tourists, scientists and anyone else looking to experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Virgin Galactic’s rocketship is launched from an airplane, while Blue Origin’s capsule is hoisted by a reusable New Shepard rocket.

Virgin Galactic is aiming for late September or early October for its next flight, with two Italian Air Force officers, an engineer for the National Research Council of Italy, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor and the rocketship’s two pilots. It will be the company’s first launch where researchers accompany their own experiments. The company plans to start flying ticket holders next year.

Blue Origin has yet to announce a date for its next passenger flight, other than to say it will be soon.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#29 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:58 pm

Virgin Galactic stock craters after commercial flights are delayed

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/15/tech/vir ... index.html

London (CNN Business)Virgin Galactic has pushed back the start of full commercial service to the fourth quarter of next year, sending shares in the space tourism company founded by billionaire Richard Branson down sharply.

The stock dropped 14% in early trading on Friday after Virgin Galactic (SPCE) said it was making schedule changes that would delay a crucial test flight and the start of commercial services, which had been expected to commence late in the third quarter of 2022.

Virgin Galactic said it would focus on an "enhancement program" to improve the performance of its rocket-powered plane VSS Unity and the mother ship from which it launches. It will also carry out physical inspections after a lab test "flagged a possible reduction in the strength margins of certain materials."
"While this new lab test data has had no impact on the vehicles, our test flight protocols have clearly defined strength margins, and further analysis will assess whether any additional work is required to keep them at or above established levels," the company said in a statement.
The company said that a test flight, Unity 23, that had been expected as early as this month will also be delayed. The flight will carry three paying crew members from the Italian Air Force and the country's National Research Council.
"Our decisions are driven by detailed and thorough analysis, and we fly based on the most accurate and comprehensive data available," Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement.
"The re-sequencing of our enhancement period and the Unity 23 flight underscores our safety-first procedures, provides the most efficient path to commercial service, and is the right approach for our business and our customers," he added.
Virgin Galactic said the delays are not related to its recent probe into a potential defect in a supplier component. It said that issue has been resolved.
.
Branson became the first person to ride into space aboard a rocket they helped fund in July, traveling with three fellow crew members. He was followed into space days later by fellow billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. SpaceX, which was founded by Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, is also competing in the space race.
Branson's flight, Unity 22, was investigated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for deviating from its assigned flight path. Virgin Galactic said in September that it had been cleared to fly again after the regulator accepted its "corrective actions."
More than 600 people — who purchased tickets for between $200,000 and $250,000 when Virgin Galactic sold its first batch of tickets nearly a decade ago — are already on the waiting list for a flight.
Virgin Galactic has been in the red every quarter since it went public in 2019, though executives are hoping to turn that around as it moves from its testing program into normal operations. The company said in August that it was reopening ticket sales at a base price of $450,000.
— Jackie Wattles contributed reporting.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#30 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Oct 17, 2021 2:54 am

Always "next year" with Branson's outfit. I think that Virgin Galactic's primary purpose is as a tax efficient, loss making vehicle, for Branson's complex web of companies, that, and a marketing and ego stroking vehicle for the "bearded wonder" himself. Its stock valuation has always been, to my mind, absurdly high, "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds ..." and all that stuff, I guess.

I wonder how long that 270 million $ prospective pipeline will remain open, particularly after the first abort, or, God forbid, accident?

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#31 Post by TheGreenGoblin » Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:10 am

PHXPhlyer wrote:
Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:58 pm

"Elon Musk, is also competing in the space race."
Competing? SpaceX is winning the space race, at every level, by the proverbial mile in most categories.

Branson's one trick pony isn't even flying regularly, while Jeff Bezos's outfit is a clunking, safety deficient, autocracy according to some of it staff, and is currently shedding experienced space engineers at an unprecedented rate if we are to believe the scuttlebutt
The billionaire space race is only a race by name. In actuality, there is SpaceX – and everyone else.

Only the company founded by Elon Musk nearly two decades ago has sent an orbital rocket booster into space and landed it safely again. Only SpaceX has landed a rocket the size of a 15-storey building on a drone ship in the middle of the ocean. Only SpaceX has carried both Nasa astronauts and private citizens to the International Space Station. Only SpaceX is producing thousands of its own table-sized communication satellites every year. Only SpaceX has the almost weekly launch cadence necessary to single-handedly double the number of operational satellites in orbit in less than two years. Only SpaceX is launching prototypes of the largest and most powerful rocket ever made, a behemoth called Starship that is destined to carry humans to the moon.

There is more innovation happening in the commercial space sector today than at any time in history and the launch services sector is particularly competitive. Relativity Space is building the world’s first 3D-printed rocket and plans to build rockets on Mars with robots. Virgin Orbit is putting satellites into orbit by launching a rocket from beneath the wing of a jumbo jet. Its sister company, Virgin Galactic, is flying people to the edge of space from an air-launched space plane. RocketLab has developed the first rocket engine fed with an electric pump and is trying to catch it out of the air with a net connected to a helicopter.

And then there’s Blue Origin, which dominated world headlines for days this week with its launch of the Star Trek actor William Shatner – briefly – into space.

If there were any rocket company expected to be at a comparable level of technological achievement to SpaceX, it is Blue Origin. The company was founded by the former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in 2000, just two years before SpaceX set up shop in California. In 2015, Blue Origin became the first company to send a rocket above the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space, and land it again. While this is not as challenging as bringing a rocket back from orbit – as Musk has taunted Bezos in the past – it was still a major milestone in the history of private space exploration. And unlike Musk, Bezos actually knows what it’s like to ride on his own rocket.

Bezos founded Blue Origin with visionary goals. Inspired by the late Princeton futurist Gerard K O’Neill, Bezos dreams of moving heavy industry off of Earth and into space to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He wants to lay the foundation for an extra-terrestrial economy where thousands of people are living and working in space. His company is building a rocket as powerful as the one that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon and has partnered with leading defense contractors including Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper to develop a lunar lander that could bring humans back to the lunar surface. It has designed and built one of the most powerful rocket engines ever made and inked contracts with the United Launch Alliance to supply the engine for its next generation Vulcan rocket.

There’s no doubt that Bezos has plenty of vision. The question is: why can’t the second richest man in the world execute on it?

Over the past few years, Blue Origin’s master plan has begun unraveling. Earlier this year, Nasa awarded its lunar lander contract to SpaceX, leaving Blue Origin in the lurch. It’s now suing the US government to reconsider the award. It’s seen an exodus of top engineering talent following the lost contract, which has only exacerbated its already considerable delays. Blue Origin has struggled to hit its stride producing its powerful BE-4 rocket engine and as a result the maiden launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket has slipped to late 2022. This will make the first flight of the engine a full five years behind schedule.

Meanwhile, the first flight of the company’s fabled New Glenn rocket, a heavy launch vehicle capable of hoisting nearly 100,000 pounds into low Earth orbit, has also been pushed to late 2022 at the earliest. It was originally meant to fly for the first time last year. Bezos didn’t even get the glory of being the first billionaire to ride his own rocket into space. Just two weeks before Bezos flew to the edge of space this summer, Richard Branson completed a suborbital flight in his own spaceplane with Virgin Galactic.

How did this happen? Blue Origin employs thousands of the world’s top rocket engineers. The company also has access to a virtually unlimited supply of money. Bezos, who is worth just south of $200bn, spends $1bn a year out of his own pocket to fund Blue Origin. By all measures, Blue Origin should be one of the most successful space companies in the world.

“Blue Origin has all the ingredients for success and to become something truly fantastic,” said Ally Abrams, the former head of Blue Origin employee communications who recently wrote a whistleblower essay detailing safety concerns and rampant sexism at the company. “The engineers really believed that and they try every day to make that a reality despite the leadership’s interventions.”

According to Abrams, Blue Origin’s troubles have both a technical and cultural dimension. On the technical side, Abrams said the company suffers from an immense amount of technical debt–engineering challenges that build up as a result of choosing a quick solution rather than the best solution – and a relentless focus on speed that undermined its ability to properly address problems with its launch vehicles. She explained the exodus of top talent from Blue Origin as engineers who “got tired of putting Band-Aids on problems”.

“Technical debt is a problem most companies have but at Blue it’s just on an incredible scale,” Abrams said. “It really failed to transition from an R&D company to a production company.”

Abrams partially attributes the mounting technical debt to Blue Origin’s increasing focus on speed, an irony for a company whose motto is Gradatim Ferociter, the Latin rendering of “step by step, ferociously”. She traces the mounting pressure to move fast to 2017, when it was clear the company was failing to keep pace with its rivals at SpaceX. She said Bezos’s growing impatience with the pace of development was palpable, as was the “jealousy he seemed to have for the other billionaires who seemed to be making more progress than him”.

“The schedule was always a huge joke within the company,” Abrams said. “We’d put out the dates externally and employees would laugh because they knew that just wasn’t possible.”

Plenty of engineers didn’t feel comfortable raising safety and quality concerns for fear of retaliation, which is a very scary thing when you’re working on a high risk, experimental vehicle.

In her essay, Abrams described a company where executives show “consistently inappropriate” behavior toward women and where “dissent is actively stifled”. According to Abrams, Blue Origin’s cultural problems started at the top and flowed down throughout the company. She said Blue Origin’s CEO, Bob Smith, who was tapped by Bezos to lead the company in 2017, repeatedly failed to listen to his employees’ concerns about the safety of the company’s vehicles and its toxic workplace culture.

“Bob Smith is one of the most incapable leaders I have ever encountered,” Abrams said. “Passion withers in his presence. Plenty of engineers didn’t feel comfortable raising safety and quality concerns for fear of retaliation, which is a very scary thing when you’re working on a high-risk, experimental vehicle.”

Abrams’ whistleblower essay was co-signed by 20 anonymous current and former Blue Origin employees. Many of its allegations were denied by the company.

A statement from Blue Origin said the company had dismissed Abrams for “repeated warnings for issues involving federal export control regulations”, that the company has no tolerance for harassment or discrimination, and that it believes its New Shepard rocket is “the safest space vehicle ever designed or built”.

“It is particularly difficult and painful, for me, to hear claims being levied that attempt to characterize our entire team in a way that doesn’t align with the character and capability that I see at Blue Origin every day,” Smith wrote in an internal email to Blue Origin employees earlier this month. “As always, I welcome and encourage any member of Team Blue to speak directly with me if they have any concerns on any topic at any time.”

Still, Blue Origin employees continue to speak out. Earlier this week, an investigation by the Washington Post echoed the issues raised by Abrams and painted a picture of an organization riddled with distrust of its leadership, sexism and insufficient concern for the safety of its launch vehicles.

Looking to the future, the question for Blue Origin is whether it can overhaul its culture to deliver on its mission. Many observers, including Abrams, are skeptical. But perhaps a change is imminent. Earlier this year, Bezos stepped down from his role as the CEO of Amazon and committed himself to spending more time focused on Blue Origin. Whether Bezos can reinvigorate the company’s culture with his grand vision for human space exploration and a sense of common purpose remains to be seen.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... y-concerns
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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#32 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:23 pm

Former lead Virgin Galactic test pilot takes new gig at Blue Origin

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/19/tech/vir ... index.html

New York (CNN Business)Mark "Forger" Stucky, who for six years headed the test pilot program at space company Virgin Galactic before he says he was fired earlier this year, is taking a job with the company's chief competitor, Blue Origin.

Stucky said he will join Blue Origin's "Advanced Development Programs" team, where he said in a statement to CNN that he will "do my best to contribute to [CEO Jeff Bezos'] amazing vision of humans not just having a continuous presence in space but truly becoming a space-faring species."
Blue Origin confirmed Stucky's hiring in an email.
Stucky piloted the first flight aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo that reached the edge of space in 2018. That flight was widely considered to be the first crewed mission to space to launch from US soil since NASA's Space Shuttle Program retired in 2011, and it earned him a pair of commercial astronaut wings.
He was also a key figure in "Test Gods," a recent book by New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle, which mapped out previously undisclosed issues with a 2019 flight of SpaceShipTwo. In the book, Stucky also speaks candidly about the risks involved with the spacecraft, including a vivid account of a 2011 test flight Stucky piloted during which SpaceShipTwo, which requires two pilots to operate, began spinning out of control. Stucky's co-pilot "was sure they were going to die" before Stucky was able to regain control of the plane by deploying a special braking system, called the "feather," according to the book.
Stucky announced he was leaving Virgin Galactic shortly after Branson's flight to space in July in a brief LinkedIn post, saying "If life throws you lemons then maybe it's time to learn to juggle." He added that his departure was not on his own timeline.
Virgin Galactic stock craters after commercial flights are delayed
Virgin Galactic stock craters after commercial flights are delayed
"I'll leave it to Virgin Galactic to explain the reason for my termination as they never explained it to me," he said in a statement to CNN. "It's only logical to assume it was due to the book 'Test Gods' as the work environment completely changed after its publication. The same supervisor that told me I was indispensable, undervalued, and underpaid in April never really talked to me again after the book release in May."
The company declined to comment on Stucky's departure.
Since leaving Virgin Galactic, Stucky has become more critical of the company on social media. In one tweet, responding to an article that revealed Branson's own spaceflight did not take the proper trajectory due to what the company said were strong upper winds, Stucky tweeted "the most misleading statement today was @virgingalactic's."
Blue Origin: Essay alleges sexism, 'dehumanizing' culture at Jeff Bezos' rocket company
Blue Origin: Essay alleges sexism, 'dehumanizing' culture at Jeff Bezos' rocket company
"The facts are the pilots failed to trim to achieve the proper pitch rate, the winds were well within limits, they did nothing of substance to address the trajectory error, & entered Class A airspace without authorization," he wrote.
Virgin Galactic did not respond to additional requests for comment about that specific incident. But in a September statement, the company had said that "although the flight's ultimate trajectory deviated from our initial plan, it was a controlled and intentional flight path that allowed Unity 22 to successfully reach space and land safely at our Spaceport in New Mexico. At no time were passengers and crew put in any danger as a result of this change in trajectory."
The statement added that the pilots of the spaceplane encountered high-altitude winds, and "responded appropriately to these changing flight conditions."
The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial space flights, grounded the company in early September while it investigated the issues surrounding Branson's flight. The investigation found that it flew outside of its designated FAA airspace for nearly two minutes and that the company failed to notify the FAA about the deviation in the flight path. The FAA closed the investigation and cleared Virgin Galactic for flight after the company agreed to change how it communicates with the FAA during flight operations.
Virgin Galactic was planning to launch its first crewed mission since Branson's flight in October. But the company now says the flight's been postponed until after a "planned vehicle enhancement and modification period," further delaying its plans to begin flying paying customers.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement about the delay last week that the "decisions are driven by detailed and thorough analysis, and we fly based on the most accurate and comprehensive data available."
He added that Virgin Galactic vehicles "are designed with significant margins for safety, providing layers of protection that far exceed loads experienced and expected to occur on our flights."
While Stucky says he's "extremely grateful" to be joining Blue Origin, the new job means he may no longer get to fly to space because Blue Origin does not currently operate a vehicle that requires pilots. New Shepard, the suborbital space tourism vehicle that took Bezos to space shortly after Branson's flight in July, is fully autonomous.
"There is no flight promise," he said. "But never say never is a carrot that works for some of us.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#33 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:08 pm

Virgin Galactic opens ticket sales to the general public
The trips, which will take passengers to an altitude of more than 50 miles, will cost $450,000 and include several days of training.


https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/v ... -rcna16279

Planning a vacation this year? How about something a little more weightless?

Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company founded by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, announced Tuesday that it will begin selling tickets this week for joyrides to the edge of space. The cost: a whopping $450,000.

Starting Wednesday, members of the public will be able to reserve a spot on an upcoming suborbital spaceflight.

"We plan to have our first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year," Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, said in a statement.

During the 90-minute flight, passengers will reach an altitude of more than 50 miles and experience roughly four minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth.

Space tourists will fly aboard the company's rocket-powered vehicle, known as SpaceShipTwo Unity. The craft is designed to take off on a conventional runway while attached to the underbelly of a carrier ship. The vehicles fly to 50,000 feet, where Unity is released and its engine ignites to power it to the edge of space.

Virgin Galactic’s joyrides take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico. Reservations include several days of training and spaceflight preparedness programs, according to the company.

Last year, Branson himself flew to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic's first expedition with a full crew. That July flight later became the focus of a mishap investigation by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, after it was determined that the SpaceShipTwo craft went off course from its assigned airspace during its descent.

The FAA grounded the space tourism company while the investigation took place, but in late September, Virgin Galactic was cleared to return to flight. At the time, the FAA said the company had made "required changes" to how it communicates during missions. Virgin Galactic also said it had taken steps to expand protected airspace for upcoming flights.

Branson's suborbital jaunt in 2021 came less than two weeks before fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos also reached the edge of space aboard a rocket and capsule designed by his own space company, Blue Origin.

The much-hyped stunts marked a new era in the private spaceflight industry, fueled by rivalries among companies such as Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.

Blue Origin has not announced how much suborbital flights aboard its New Shepard rocket and capsule will cost, though tickets are likely to be in the range of several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

SpaceX, which has been ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2020, has been more focused on orbital tourism. The company made history last year after it launched four private passengers into orbit on the first mission to space with an all-civilian crew.

In March, SpaceX is partnering with the Houston-based company Axiom Space to launch a retired NASA astronaut and three private customers — each of whom reportedly paid $55 million — to the International Space Station.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#34 Post by PHXPhlyer » Fri Feb 18, 2022 2:30 pm

Chamath Palihapitiya resigns as chairman of Virgin Galactic

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/18/business ... index.html

Chamath Palihapitiya resigns as chairman of Virgin Galactic

Billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya, who was one of the executives to help take Virgin Galactic public, has stepped down as chariman of the company.

The company didn’t say why Palihapitiya was leaving. Evan Lovell, the chief investment officer of Vigin Group, will take his place as interim chairman.

Virgin Galactic, founded by Virgin Group’s Richard Branson, went public through a special purpose acquisition company in 2019, closing its first day of trading at $11.50. Shares soared as high as $62.80 in February of 2021 on investors’ excitement about the potential of space tourism and commercial space travel.

But shares have steadily lost value since then. One of the things that prompted the slide was the disclosure in March last year that Palihapitiya had sold off about $200 million of his stake in the company. The filing at the time disclosed he had sold 6.2 million shares for an average price of $34.32.

Shares of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) closed trading Thursday at $9.01.

Palihapitiya sparked a backlash last month he said on a podcast that “nobody cares about what’s happening to the Uyghurs,” referring to the mostly Muslim ethnic and religious minority group that the Chinese government has been accused of abusing. Several companies in which he is involved, including Virgin Galactic, distanced themselves from Palihapitiya, who later apologized for the comments.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#35 Post by PHXPhlyer » Mon May 08, 2023 8:00 pm

Virgin Galactic prepared to launch to the edge of space after hiatus

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/08/business ... index.html

Virgin Galactic, the suborbital space tourism company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, is gearing up for its first flight to the edge of space in nearly two years.

The flight, slated for late May, will carry two pilots and a crew of four Virgin Galactic employees, the company announced Monday. The company expects it will be the final test run before Virgin Galactic can open up rides for paying customers after years of promises, missed deadlines, and Branson selling off a huge chunk of his original stake in the company.

If all goes well, Virgin Galactic expects to begin commercial services out of its spaceport in New Mexico in late June.

Virgin Galactic had appeared poised to begin commercial operations after it launched Branson to the edge of space alongside three crewmates in July 2021, a flight that came less than two weeks before Branson’s rival Jeff Bezos conducted his own flight to the edge of space. Branson denied he had been racing with Bezos.

But the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, later opened an investigation into Branson’s flight when it was revealed that the space plane veered off course during the high-profile flight.

VSS Imagine, the first SpaceShip III in the Virgin Galactic fleet.
Virgin Galactic reopens space tourism ticket sales
That investigation concluded in September 2021 and gave Virgin Galactic the all-clear for more flights. But the company then announced it was delaying the start of commercial services, citing unrelated technology upgrades.

Several deadlines for the company’s expected return to space have passed. At one point in early 2022, the company was targeting as early as last October for its first commercial missions. At the time Virgin Galactic went public in 2019, it had also been touting plans to start commercial service in 2020.

“We are making good progress on validating the enhancements made throughout 2022, and we remain on track for commercial service in Q2 of this year,” CEO Michael Colglazier told investors during the company’s latest earnings call on February 28, 2023.

Virgin Galactic conducted several test flights before Branson’s flight in 2021. But since then, the company has flown only one test flight of VSS Unity, which sent the space plane gliding through the air but did not attempt to fire up the plane’s rocket engine.

The company has also been losing money for years, burning through funds as it attempts to finish its qualification flights and begin welcoming customers on board — some of whom paid for their tickets more than a decade ago.

The company has sold about 800 tickets total, including 600 at prices ranging from $200,000 to $250,000 and 200 more at $450,000, which is the current ticket price, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

Virgin Galactic is competing directly with Bezos’ Blue Origin in the suborbital space tourism business. Since Bezos’ flight in July 2021, the company has since completed five additional crewed flights to space. Blue Origin’s operations, however, have been on pause since an uncrewed flight of its New Shepard rocket exploded in September 2022.

Six people will be on board Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity space plane for this month’s test mission. They include two pilots — CJ Sturckow and Mike Masucci — as well as four Virgin Galactic employees who will ride in the passenger cabin. Those four are Jamila Gilbert, a New Mexican native who works in the company’s internal communications; Chris Hume, a flight sciences engineer and the son of Jamaican immigrants; Luke Mays, an astronaut instructor and former NASA employee; and Beth Moses, the company’s head of astronaut training, who has joined two prior flights.

Virgin Galactic’s rocket-powered plane, called VSS Unity, is designed to ride to about 50,000 feet while attached beneath the wing of a massive, twin-fuselage mothership, dubbed “Eve” by the company. The space plane is designed to then detach from the mothership, fire its rocket engine and swoop straight up with its two pilots at the controls. Flights are designed to reach more than 50 miles above Earth, into altitudes the US government recognizes as the boundary of outer space.

Not every institution recognizes the 50-mile mark. Internationally, it’s more common to use the Kármán Line, which lies 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.

At the peak of the flight, customers are expected to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and can peer out the plane’s windows at Earth’s curved horizon and the blackness of outer space. VSS Unity then aims to glide to a landing back at the launch site. From takeoff to landing, the missions typically last under two hours.

Virgin Orbit, a sister company to Virgin Galactic that is focused on launching satellites to space on a small rocket, filed for bankruptcy in April.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#36 Post by PHXPhlyer » Thu May 25, 2023 4:07 pm

Virgin Galactic ready to launch final test flight to suborbital space today
By Elizabeth Howell last updated about 8 hours ago
It's been nearly two years since the company last went to the final frontier.

https://www.space.com/virgin-galactic-f ... SmartBrief

Virgin Galactic is gearing up for a big mission on Thursday (May 25) — its final test flight to suborbital space before starting commercial service.

Virgin Galactic will send six people toward suborbital space no earlier than 10 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. MDT or 1300 GMT) from Spaceport America in New Mexico. While the event will not be livestreamed, you will likely be able to follow along live on Virgin Galactic's Twitter feed.

The flight will include eight individuals, six of whom will fly on the space plane VSS Unity and two who will pilot the carrier aircraft, VMS Eve. Like past spaceflights, Eve will take off with Unity under its wings, the release the spacecraft at roughly 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) in altitude. Unity will light up its rocket motor and fly higher than 50 miles (80 kilometers) — high enough, by some definitions, to reach space.

Related: Meet the 8 people flying on Virgin Galactic's 5th spaceflight on Thursday

Click here for more Space.com videos...
The flight, called Unity 25, will be the fifth time that Virgin Galactic has flown to space. The company last made such a journey on July 11, 2021, with billionaire Virgin Group founder Richard Branson as one of the passengers. The last two years have been spent upgrading and testing Unity and Eve in preparation for service.

Virgin Galactic has said that, should Unity 25 go to plan, it will open up commercial flights for passengers. The most recent prices for tickets saw them sell for $450,000 apiece, with hundreds of people in line for a flight.

plane flying with a spaceplane being carried underneath

Virgin Galactic uses a carrier plane, VMS Eve, and spaceship VSS Unity for spaceflights. Here the duo is seen during the Unity 24 test flight. (Image credit: Virgin Galactic)
All eight individuals aboard Unity 25 are Virgin Galactic employees. Veteran Virgin Galactic pilot Mike Masucci will command VSS Unity, and former NASA astronaut C.J. Sturckow will be its pilot. Jameel Janjua will command VMS Eve, with Nicola Pecile as pilot.

The four crew members flying Unity's cabin are Beth Moses (chief astronaut instructor, who has been to space twice already), astronaut instructor Luke Mays, mission specialist Christopher Huie and mission specialist Jamila Gilbert. This will be the first spaceflight for Mays, Huie and Gilbert.

The main competing space tourism company to Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, has also suspended flights for a while. Blue Origin's New Shepard system suffered a failure during an uncrewed launch in September 2022, but the fix to address the root cause is apparently still underway. The company has said it may resume flights later this year. Blue Origin, which has not released per-seat pricing, has flown people to space on New Shepard six times to date.

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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#37 Post by OneHungLow » Thu May 25, 2023 8:12 pm

The test flight was successful it seems.
With a successful flight on Thursday (May 25), Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) completed SpaceShipTwo’s 13-year-long flight test program, paving the way for the start of commercial suborbital crewed flights in late June.

The final test lasted 22 minutes and saw the VSS Unity spacecraft fly 54.2 miles (87.2 km) over the New Mexico desert with two pilots in the cockpit and four company employees in the passenger cabin, according to Virgin Galactic. The rocket plane was dropped over the desert by the twin-fuselage WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve mothership. VSS Unity then glided to a landing at Spaceport America.

Mission commander Mike Masucci and pilot CJ Sturckow flew VSS Unity. Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses made her third suborbital flight to evaluate the passenger experience. She was joined in the passenger cabin by three rookies, including Astronaut Instructor Luke Mays, Flight Sciences Engineer Chris Huie, and New Mexico native Jamila Gilbert.

Jameel Janjua served as the commander of the VMS Eve carrier aircraft that air-launched the spacecraft, and Nicola Pecile was in the pilot seat.

Virgin Galactic plans to fly Italian Air Force pilots Col. Walter Villadei and Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, and the Italian National Research Council’s Pantaleone Carlucci on the company’s first commercial crew flight at the end of June, which is now possible thanks to this successful test. Moses will join them in the passenger cabin on the research mission.

Virgin Galactic has previously earned revenue from flying microgravity experiments in the cabin without any researchers aboard. The Italian flight will be the first time that paying passengers will be aboard the spaceship.

In the third quarter, Virgin Galactic will begin to fly the first of around 800 ticket holders, some of whom put down deposits beginning in 2005. Seats originally sold for $200,000, but Virgin Galactic raised the price to $250,000 in 2013, and then to $450,000 in 2022.

Company officials have said they expect VSS Unity to fly on a monthly basis with up to four passengers per flight. The advanced Delta-class SpaceShipTwo vehicles, which are set to begin commercial flights in 2026, are being designed to fly on a weekly basis with six passengers.

VSS Unity‘s last powered flight test was on July 11, 2021. It carried company Founder Richard Branson, Moses, and two company employees to test the astronaut experience.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded VSS Unity for more than a month because the spacecraft veered outside of its assigned airspace during the flight. Virgin Galactic then took the space plane and its VMS Eve mothership out of service for a series of modifications. VSS Unity completed a glide flight on April 26 to test the modifications.

The completion of the flight test program was a long time coming. Virgin Galactic Founder Richard Branson announced plans for SpaceShipTwo in September 2004, with plans to begin flying passengers on suborbital flights as early as 2007. More than a decade of delays, marred by two fatal accidents that killed four people, followed.

WhiteKnightTwo kicked off the flight test program with a maiden flight on Dec. 21, 2008. It carried the first SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, on its first captive carry flight on Oct. 20, 2010. VSS Enterprise had its first powered flight on April 29, 2013. The rocket plane was destroyed on its fourth powered flight on Oct. 31, 2014.
https://parabolicarc.com/2023/05/25/vir ... ight-test/
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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#38 Post by PHXPhlyer » Sat Jun 17, 2023 10:29 pm

Virgin Galactic announces first commercial spaceflights this summer

Virgin Galactic announced Thursday that the "spaceline for Earth is open" and the company will hold its first commercial spaceflights this summer.

Shares soared on Friday by double-digits.

Virgin Galactic’s first commercial spaceflight is scheduled to happen from June 27 to June 30. The scientific research mission, known as "Galactic 01," will carry three crew members from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy and conduct research on microgravity, according to a release from the company.

That will be followed in early August by Virgin Galactic’s first private astronaut flight, a mission that will be known as "Galactic 02." The company’s release did not specify who will participate in the private astronaut flight.


The company’s press release said following the launch of Galactic 02, monthly spaceflights are expected to happen hereafter. Virgin Galactic completed its test flight in advance of the Galactic 01 and Galactic 02 flights in May.

"If you ever dreamed of exploring beyond, welcome to the new space age," Virgin Galactic’s promotional video said.

Following the announcement, Virgin Galactic shares surged in after-hours trading.

The company’s stock price soared by over 40% to $4.06 per share as of 7:40 p.m. ET, although it remained well below the all-time highs of more than $55 per share it reached in 2021.

Expand
Virgin Galactic was founded by billionaire Richard Branson in 2004 and is headquartered in Orange County, California. The company aims to find commercial success by selling private trips to space to members of the public in addition to facilitating scientific research missions.

It began offering ticket sales to members of the public interested in private spaceflight in 2022. Prices for a reservation run about $450,000 and the company has a reported waitlist of about 800 passengers.

A spinoff company, Virgin Orbit, was launched in 2017 but faced layoffs in March 2023 and was ultimately shuttered in May 2023 due to financial and technical challenges.


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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#39 Post by OneHungLow » Tue Jun 27, 2023 5:05 am

I have been following the Virgin Galactic saga from day 1 and even before day 0 to the Ansari X Prize and Burt Rutan's Scaled Composiite's Tier One Project which won the prize with South African Mike Melvill as the pilot.

It was clear from the outset that the Rutan design was intended as a fast and innovative track to win that prize but overall the whole concept was on the technological ragged edge and not suitable as a safe platform to repeatedly put wealthy paying punters safely, en masse, into space.

That Virgin and ultimately Branson bought into the design as Virgin Galactic says more about trying to take the "easy" commercial route into space, along with a convenient tax offset mechanism for Branson's byzantine company tax structure, than it does about the suitability of the technology for commercial space flight. That that route has proved to be far from easy and statistically deadly, multiple engineers and one pilot dead so far, points to what is likely to happen in the future. One doesn't need to revert to Bayesian statistical methods to predict an incident, possibly fatal, within the first 10 to 15 commercial flights that will finally disabuse those remaining would be fee payers from this company's and their own, space fever dream.

I predict that Virgin Galactic will ultimately be seen to have more in common with the Titanic submersible venture than it does with a trustworthy outfit operating commercially within reasonable safe boundaries.
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Re: More on Virgin Galactic...

#40 Post by PHXPhlyer » Tue Jun 27, 2023 5:04 pm

You're not the only one.

Space tourism companies might learn a lesson from the Titan sub disaster. But are they ready to listen?

"It is exactly the kind of scenario that would trigger a big discussion if it were to happen in a space tourism flight."

https://www.space.com/titan-submersible ... SmartBrief

For many experts involved in discussions over the need for (or lack of ) safety standards for the fledgling space tourism industry, the tragedy of the Titan submersible felt like their own nightmare scenario come true. But will the disaster that killed five people, including a 19-year-old university student, move the needle toward a more safety-first approach, or will arguments that innovation could suffer prevail?

When it comes to the absence of safety standards and technology oversight in space tourism, Tommaso Sgobba doesn't mince words. A former head of space safety at the European Space Agency, the Italian engineer has chaired over 800 safety reviews of payloads launched to the International Space Station during his ESA career and authored engineering text books on best safety practices in space systems design.

Now an executive director of the International Association of the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), Sgobba has been waging a quiet war for years against the exemption from safety oversight guaranteed to companies developing space tourism technologies by the U.S. Congress nearly two decades ago. When reports of the catastrophic implosion of an uncertified tourist submersible during a sight-seeing trip to the Titanic wreck emerged, Sgobba couldn't fail to notice similarities.

"It is exactly the kind of scenario that would trigger a big discussion if it were to happen in a space tourism flight," Sgobba told Space.com in an interview. "In fact, we have a sort of an analogue here. You have a technology that goes into an extreme environment for the purpose of pleasure that doesn't give much chance to people to survive if something goes badly wrong."

CLOSE
Sub disaster lessons for suborbital tourism
The similarities don't end here. Just like space tourism vehicles such as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space plane or Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, the Titan submersible didn't require independent certification to ferry paying customers into the ocean's depths. Then there were the somewhat dismissive claims regarding safety certifications made by Stockton Rush, the billionaire CEO of OceanGate, the company that built and operated Titan, unearthed by journalists in the wake of the disaster. In the face of criticism, Rush accused experts of stifling innovation and bragged about the standard-defying uniqueness of OceanGate's technology, while asserting the need to accept risk for the experience of a lifetime.

All these claims echoed arguments that Sgobba has heard over the years from the space tourism community. But for the veteran space safety engineer, those arguments always ring hollow.

"Standards in aviation and space have evolved from prescriptive requirements, which were telling you exactly how to build a system to something that expects you to demonstrate that you have performed your hazard analysis and addressed the main safety problems," Sgobba said. "In fact, if you want to fly a coffee machine to the International Space Station, you will have to comply with the same set of standards as if you were building a whole new module. So it is a lie to say that standards mean that someone will tell you exactly how to build your system."

A moratorium on regulations issued by the U.S. Congress in 2004 and extended several times prevents the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from intervening into issues related to the safety of participants on space tourism flights. The companies have to prove their flights don't pose any risk to those on Earth and other users of airspace and demonstrate that their space vehicles worked during one previous flight, an FAA spokesperson told Space.com in an earlier interview. This moratorium, however, is set to expire in October this year, and the Titan disaster might be just the argument that sways legislators toward ending the boundary-less regime.


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