Virgin got one on the board.
The Space war has gone from national to commercial over the past few years. Since Obama cut funding to NASA and opened it up to the private industry, Virgin and Space X have been fighting to get their programs off the ground. Both companies have ran into their own issues but Space X have been having a lot of success as of late. But Virgin got one on the board.
Virgin was met with a major setback four years ago. During a flight attempt the pilot was killed and the co-pilot badly injured. An anomaly was found during the flight which led to the deadly crash. And Virgin have been hard at work to fix all the issues. On April 5th Virgin conducted their first successful flight reaching supersonic speeds of over mach 1.8. Sir Richard Branson is one step closer to achieving a commercial space line.
The Spaceship Company
The Spaceship company manufacturers and test the aircraft for Virgin. Located in Mohave, California, they operate out of a hangar located on the Mohave Airport properties. Their team is responsible for the design and engineering of both the Spaceshiptwo and the Whiteknighttwo. The Whiteknighttwo is the craft designed to lift the launch vehicle into orbit. The Spaceshiptwo is the actual launch vehicle that fly passengers into space. Started in 2005 The Spaceship Company became wholly owned by Virgin Galactic in 2012. Since then they have continued to press forward with designing the first space liner.
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic conducts the flight operations side. Everything from final checks, preparing the vehicle for launch, and monitoring the operations is all Virgin Galactic. They still work hand and hand with The Spaceship Company during the launch operations. But getting all the pieces in place is the job of the Virgin Galactic team. Richard Branson already has the experience to run an airline (Virgin Atlantic). Now the question is will he be able to run a space line.
