Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is an American-based, British-owned commercial spaceflight company within Richard Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions, and orbital launches of small satellites. Further in the future, Virgin Galactic hopes to offer orbital human spaceflights as well. Virgin Galactic's spacecraft is launched from a large aeroplane, giving the spacecraft more initial speed and altitude than if it were launched from the ground.

Vehicles to be Used

Virgin Galactic have planned to have a fleet of two White Knight Two mother ships and five or more SpaceShipTwo tourist suborbital spacecraft. 

 SpaceShipTwo tourist suborbital spacecraft

 The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is a suborbital, air-launched spaceplane designed for space tourism. It is under development as part of the Tier 1b program under contract to The Spaceship Company, a California-based company that is wholly owned by its sister company Virgin Galactic. The Spaceship Company was formerly a joint venture between Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, but Virgin became the company's sole owner in 2012.

SpaceShipTwo is carried to its launch altitude by a jet-powered mothership, the Scaled Composites White Knight Two, before being released to fly on into the upper atmosphere, powered by a rocket motor. It then glides back to Earth and performs a conventional runway landing. The spaceship was officially unveiled to the public on 7 December 2009 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. On 29 April 2013, after nearly three years of unpowered testing, the spacecraft successfully performed its first powered test flight.

Virgin Galactic plans to operate a fleet of five SpaceShipTwo spaceplanes in a private passenger-carrying service, starting in 2014, and have been taking bookings for some time, with a suborbital flight carrying an initial ticket price of US$200,000 (Holy Cow, don't to think that's a bit too much). The spaceplane could also be used to carry scientific payloads for NASA and other organizations.

Want to see this beast flying. Well you can see it here: Youtube

Commercial Spaceflight Locations

Test launches are planned to take place from the Mojave Spaceport, where Scaled Composites is constructing the spacecraft. As of 2008, Virgin Galactic expected that initial passenger flights would take place there as well.

An international architectural competition was held in 2007–2008 for the design of Virgin Galactic's operating base, Spaceport America in New Mexico. The contract was awarded to URS and Foster + Partners architects. The original plan called for flight operations to transfer from the California desert to the new spaceport upon completion of the spaceport. In the event, the spaceport has been complete for several years now.

In October 2010, the company held an event at Spaceport America where it ceremoniously opened the first runway. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson attended the ceremony, and SpaceShipTwo, also known as the "VSS Enterprise", was landed during the event. For the landing, the VSS Enterprise was carried underneath the fuselage of Virgin Galactic's Mother Ship Eve.

Virgin Galactic's Operating Base

I hope that soon we normal people will be able to enjoy the beauty and depth of Space and will be able to go on vacations to far off planets. I hope that the technology keeps on evolving and even more new astonishing feats are reached. Long live aviation and may our dreams to reach space come true.

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Source: Wikipedia