Virgin Galactic

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Virgin Galactic, LLC
legal form Limited Liability Company
founding 2004
Seat Las Cruces , New Mexico , United States
management Richard Branson (Chairman)
George Whitesides (CEO)
Michael P. Moses (President)
Branch Space tourism
Website www.virgingalactic.com

The Virgin Galactic, LLC is an American aerospace company and part of the Virgin Group . It was founded in 2004 with the aim of providing sub-orbital space flights for space tourists. Furthermore, orbital space flights and scientific missions are to be carried out.

history

In September 2004, Virgin Galactic was founded by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and American engineer Burt Rutan .

A month later, Rutan's company won Scaled Composites to 10 million US dollars doped Ansari X Prize . This was put out to tender in 1996 with the aim of transporting three people twice to an altitude of over 100 km ( Kármán line ). Scaled Composites achieved this goal as part of the TierOne program: It consists of the White Knight carrier aircraft and the SpaceShipOne rocket aircraft . The existing technology should be further developed and finally commercialized by Virgin Galactic.

The Spaceship Company (TSC) was founded in July 2005 as a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Scaled Composites for the development and production of the vehicles called WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo . The launch customer Virgin Galactic ordered five SpaceShipTwos and two carrier systems. However, the prototypes of the two vehicles were still manufactured by Scaled Composites.

Virgin Galactic's headquarters and control center was established in the city of Las Cruces , New Mexico that same year . In December 2005, the company also signed an agreement with the US state of New Mexico to build a spaceport in the south of the state for US $ 200 million. Opened was Spaceport America in October 2011th

The design of the new aircraft for commercial operations was presented to the public for the first time in January 2008. The rollout of the first White Knight Two carrier aircraft followed in July 2008. Half a year later, the rollout of the first SpaceShipTwo took place, which was christened VSS Enterprise (VSS - Virgin SpaceShip).

Virgin Galactic's first CEO was George T. Whitesides in May 2010.

Background information

Space tourist ticket prices are budgeted at $ 200,000 with a $ 20,000 deposit. The aircraft is designed for six passengers with two pilots (SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two). White Knight Two transports the SpaceShipTwo up to a height of 16 km. At this height it is decoupled and accelerated with its rocket motor to finally advance to the Kármán line (100 km). The time span between the start of the White Knight and the landing of the spaceship is around 3.5 hours. Weightlessness, on the other hand, takes about six minutes. During this time, passengers have the option of unbuckling their seats. In addition to sub-orbital passenger flights, Virgin Galactic plans to market the SpaceShipTwo for sub-orbital scientific missions.

Will Whitehorn, President of Virgin Galactic, announced in 2009 that the company has no defined schedule for the start of the first commercial flights, but that the first flights should take place within the next two years. In September 2011 Richard Branson hoped that the first flight could take place within 12 months, in August 2013 "next year" was given as the date for the first commercial flight. In October 2013, the flights were postponed indefinitely due to significant problems with the spacecraft's propulsion system. Spaceport America was named for the suborbital flights .

Setbacks

In 2007, three Scaled Composites employees - Todd Ivens, Eric Blackwell, and Charles May - were killed when a nitrous oxide tank exploded during a SpaceShipTwo engine test. They observed the test behind a simple fence that did not protect against fragments flying around after the explosion. Three other employees were injured in the test in Mojave, California. The exact reason for the accident was never published, but the company was fined for violating safety regulations.

On October 31, 2014, the SpaceShipTwo prototype VSS Enterprise crashed during a test flight. The pilot Peter Siebold was seriously injured and was able to parachute himself, while co-pilot Mike Alsbury was killed. The reason for the crash was the air brake system ("Feather") of the SpaceShipTwo, which was used too early. As a result, the plane broke apart in the air.

The aircraft fleet

SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two

With the establishment of the Spaceship Company (TSC), the size of the ship fleet was announced. To transport the space tourists into space, the TSC company was commissioned to build five aircraft and two carriers. The following is a list of the systems:

White Knight Two carrier aircraft
Virgin MotherShips
  1. VMS Eve
  2. VMS Spirit of Steve Fossett
SpaceShipTwo suborbital aircraft
Virgin SpaceShips
  1. VSS Enterprise
  2. VSS Unity
  3. Not named yet
  4. Not named yet
  5. Not named yet

The SpaceShipTwo- type VSS Enterprise crashed during a test flight in October 2014, killing one of the two pilots.

LauncherOne carrier rocket

This is a planned small launch vehicle with which unmanned payloads can be transported into space. You will be brought to a certain altitude with a carrier aircraft and then taken off from there. Company boss Richard Branson introduced the system on July 11, 2012 at the 2012 Farnborough International Air Show . A B747-400 , which was previously used for Virgin Atlantic, is to be used as the carrier aircraft . In 2017, the launchers division of Virgin Galactic was spun off into the newly founded company Virgin Orbit .

See also

Web links

 Wikinews: Virgin Galactic  - in the news
Commons : Virgin Galactic  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chris Leadbeater: Infinity and beyond: Will Virgin Galactic ever make it into space? In: The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited, January 18, 2018, accessed July 27, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Space tourism companies aiming for orbit. In: New Scientist. New Scientist Ltd., August 25, 2005, accessed July 27, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Edward W. Younkins: From NASA to Commercial Space Enterprises ( English ) rebirthofreason.com. 2004. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  4. ^ Virgin Galactic Announced. In: virgingalactic.com. Virgin Galactic, LLC, September 27, 2004, archived from the original on December 5, 2010 ; accessed on July 27, 2018 (English).
  5. ↑ Spaceshipone flies again within 14 days - wins 10m X-Prize ( English ) scaled.com. 2004. Archived from the original on January 13, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  6. ↑ a b Captain Kirk signs on for Virgin Galactic Space Ride . soultek.com. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved February 14, 2008.
  7. ^ The Spaceship Company announced. In: thespaceshipcompany.com. The Spaceship Company, July 25, 2005, accessed June 19, 2018 .
  8. ↑ The Spaceship Company ( English ) virgingalactic.com. July 27, 2005. Archived from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  9. ^ Aircraft Fabrication and Assembly Production Planner. (PDF) In: virgingalactic.com. July 2009, archived from the original on November 22, 2009 ; accessed on July 27, 2018 (English).
  10. ↑ SpacePort Agreement Announced ( English virgingalactic.com). December 13, 2005. Archived from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  11. ↑ Mothership 'EVE' rollout ( English ) virgingalactic.com. July 28, 2008. Archived from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  12. ↑ Virgin Galactic's Commercial Spaceliner Makes Public Debut. In: Space.com. December 8, 2009, accessed April 26, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Virgin Galactic appoints its first Chief Executive ( English ) virgingalactic.com. May 17, 2010. Archived from the original on January 20, 2011. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  14. ↑ a b Space Tickets . Virgin Galactic. Archived from the original on December 30, 2010. Retrieved January 5, 2011.
  15. ^ Work starts on New Mexico spaceport . In: BBC News , June 20, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2010. 
  16. ↑ Virgin aims for first space launch within a year. AFP, September 15, 2011, accessed April 26, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Michael Bruno: Virgin Galactic CEO Counts 625 Customers For Suborbital Trips. Aviation Week, August 13, 2013, archived from the original on October 5, 2013 ; accessed on August 15, 2013 .
  18. ↑ heise.de: Private manned space flight: Virgin Galactic postpones maiden flight , October 2, 2013
  19. ^ Three die in Branson's space tourism tests. guardian.co.uk, July 27, 2007, accessed December 14, 2011 .
  20. ↑ Josie Ensor: Virgin Galactic crash: 'Don't let more die', Richard Branson told. November 8, 2014, accessed July 27, 2018 .
  21. ^ Jeff Foust: New Branson bio examines delays and other problems with Virgin Galactic. In: NewSpace Journal. January 26, 2014. Retrieved July 27, 2018 (American English).
  22. ↑ a b Private space plane "Space Ship Two" crashed. DerWesten, October 31, 2014, accessed October 31, 2014 .
  23. ↑ SpaceShipTwo Pilot's Survival is Miraculous. universetoday, November 28, 2014, accessed on November 28, 2014 .
  24. ↑ Kenneth Chang and John Schwartz: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Crashes in New Setback for Commercial Spaceflight. In: New York Times. The New York Times Company, October 31, 2014, accessed July 27, 2018 (American English).
  25. ^ Richard Branson, My Friend, Steve Fossett , Time . October 10, 2007. Retrieved October 31, 2007. 
  26. ^ Ari Burack: Sir Richard Branson, black robed as Father Richard for zany party inaugurating Virgin American flight from San Francisco to Las Vegas . San Francisco Sentinel . October 10, 2007. Retrieved February 28, 2008.
  27. ↑ Mike Nice: The Legend of Steve Fossett Takes Root. In: blogs.nytimes.com. October 11, 2007, accessed December 20, 2007 .
  28. ↑ Virgin boss in space tourism bid , BBC News. September 27, 2004. Retrieved October 31, 2007. 
  29. ↑ Simon Wilson: Will space tourism ever take off? . MoneyWeek . January 21, 2005. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
  30. ↑ Private Spaceflight: One small step for space tourism , The Economist . December 16, 2004. Retrieved December 20, 2007. 
  31. ^ Virgin Galactic Focused on Larger Satellite Launch Vehicle. July 10, 2012, accessed July 11, 2012 .
  32. ↑ Virgin Galactic Reveals Privately Funded Satellite Launcher and Confirms SpaceShipTwo Poised for Powered Flight. Virgin Galactic, July 10, 2012, accessed July 11, 2012 .
  33. ^ Virgin Galactic: LauncherOne Program to use dedicated 747-400 aircraft to responsively air-launch small satellite customer payloads. December 3, 2015, archived from the original on December 6, 2015 ; accessed on December 4, 2015 .
  34. ^ Virgin Galactic announces new commercial space company Virgin Orbit featuring LauncherOne small satellite launch service. Virgin Orbit, accessed June 1, 2018 .