Virgin Galactic

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Virgin Galactic Space Tourist Bought His Ticket in 2005

The price has gone up since then

(Newser) - Virgin Galactic rocketed to the edge of space with its first tourists Thursday, including a former British Olympian who bought his ticket 18 years ago and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean. The space plane glided back to a runway landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert, after...

After 19 Years, Virgin Galactic Brings Customers to Space

Spaceplane carried trio of Italian researchers

(Newser) - Almost 20 years after British billionaire Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic, the company has taken is first paying customers to the edge of space. The company's VSS Unity rocket plane took three Italian passengers to suborbital space Thursday in a journey that lasted 72 minutes from takeoff to touchdown...

Prince William Calls Out Rich Men's Race to Space
Shatner: Prince William
Is 'Lovely' but Wrong
UPDATED
Oct 15, 2021 6:55 AM CDT

Shatner: Prince William Is 'Lovely' but Wrong

He says Blue Origin voyages are 'baby steps' toward greater things after prince's criticism

(Newser) - Update: William Shatner says Prince William is a "lovely, gentle, educated man"—but he's got the "wrong idea" about space tourism. After the prince said the world's greatest minds should focus on fixing problems on Earth, Shatner told Entertainment Tonight that trips like his Wednesday...

FAA Is Investigating Branson's Space Flight

Trip veered off course, but Virgin Galactic insists there was no danger

(Newser) - Richard Branson famously became the first billionaire to rocket into space, just ahead of Jeff Bezos, but it seems that Branson's flight was a little rockier than first thought. Now the FAA is taking a closer look at what transpired on the Virgin Galactic trip, reports the Wall Street ...

Richard Branson Got to Space. Now Comes the Hard Part
Richard Branson Got to Space.
Now Comes the Hard Part
the rundown
Jul 12, 2021 10:55 AM CDT

Richard Branson Got to Space. Now Comes the Hard Part

Entrepreneur has to show space tourism is a viable business

(Newser) - Richard Branson blasted off into space on Sunday and returned safe and sound, but the Wall Street Journal reports that perhaps a bigger challenge for Branson's Virgin Galactic company still lies ahead: Can it make space tourism a viable business? Jeff Bezos, of course, hopes to do the same...

Richard Branson's 3am Visitor Before Space Flight: Elon Musk

Tesla founder stopped by Branson's kitchen

(Newser) - Richard Branson got a visit from another billionaire in the wee hours of Sunday, just before his historic trip to space: Elon Musk. The Virgin Group founder tweeted a photo of himself with the (barefoot) Tesla founder two hours before the flight launched, Business Insider reports. Branson later explained at...

Branson Earns His Wings, Returns After Reaching Space

70-year-old tops Jeff Bezos in race between billionaires

(Newser) - Swashbuckling entrepreneur Richard Branson hurtled into space aboard his own winged rocket ship Sunday in his boldest adventure yet, beating out fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos. The nearly 71-year-old Branson and five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space tourism company reached an altitude of about 53 miles over the New Mexico...

Branson Invites Colbert to Host Launch Livestream

Billionaire will blast off Sunday morning

(Newser) - Richard Branson is going to space on Sunday— nine days before rival billionaire Jeff Bezos—and he's now lined up a celebrity host for the livestream. Branson invited Stephen Colbert to host the Sunday morning event after the late-night host joked on Twitter about not being invited on the...

Another Billionaire Will Get to Space 9 Days Before Bezos

Richard Branson will be on July 11 flight

(Newser) - Jeff Bezos is going on what he calls his " greatest adventure " on July 20—but the Amazon founder won't be able to claim the title of "first billionaire to go to space in his own spacecraft." Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson announced Thursday that he...

Virgin Galactic Stock Jumps 28% After Landmark Flight

Major indexes rose, with tech stocks leading the way

(Newser) - Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street as investors regained an appetite for risk following two straight weeks of losses. The S&P 500 rose 1% Monday, with technology stocks leading the gains. Microsoft and Google’s parent company both rose more than 2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1....

Take a Peek Inside Virgin Galactic's Space Plane

It includes plenty of windows and cameras to capture the $250K experience

(Newser) - Virgin Galactic has offered a look inside its tourist space plane for those of us who can't afford the $250,000 ticket. The six-passenger SpaceShipTwo, a collaboration with London design agency Seymourpowell, is designed entirely around "the view of Earth from space," explains chief space officer George...

Very Expensive Balloon Ride Promises Quite a View

Company plans $125K rides into the stratosphere

(Newser) - Still pricey, but this might be the cheapest option for space tourists yet. The company Space Perspective plans to fly people up to the Earth's stratosphere in a giant balloon with a pressurized cabin, reports Space.com . The cost? $125,000 a seat. The trip would take about six...

'Spaceport America' Unveiled
'Spaceport America' Unveiled
Aug 16, 2019 12:21 AM CDT

'Spaceport America' Unveiled

Virgin Galactic plans to launch thousands of tourists from New Mexico facility

(Newser) - Spaceport America is no longer just a shiny shell of hope that space tourism would one day launch from a remote spot in the New Mexico desert. The once-empty hangar that anchors the taxpayer-financed launch and landing facility has been transformed into a custom-tailored headquarters where Virgin Galactic will run...

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Reaches Space

It's a big milestone for the commercial space industry

(Newser) - Virgin Galactic has officially reached space. Sir Richard Branson's company launched a spacecraft more than 50 miles into the air Thursday, not reaching orbit but successfully meeting the Federal Aviation Administration's definition of space, the Washington Post reports. It was the first spacecraft with humans aboard to be...

Branson: I'll Be in Space Within 'Months'

Virgin founder announces imminent test flights

(Newser) - Justin Bieber and others with a $250,000 reservation to board Virgin Galactic's tourist spaceship won't have too much longer to wait. Richard Branson tells CNBC that commercial space test flights will begin in "weeks, not months," forging a path for the Virgin founder to board...

Space Speculation: Who Are the Mystery Moon Tourists?

SpaceX could make history by sending the first woman

(Newser) - So who are the two space tourists who will be flown around the moon by SpaceX next year? The company isn't saying, but a post at the Atlantic points out an interesting stat: Of the 24 people who have flown to the moon so far (half of whom have...

Virgin Galactic Rolls Out New Space Tourism Craft

A deadly accident destroyed its predecessor

(Newser) - Virgin Galactic rolled out a new version of its SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket Friday as it prepares to return to flight testing for the first time since a 2014 accident destroyed the original craft , killing a pilot and setting back the nascent industry. A Land Rover with Virgin Galactic founder...

52 Weeks of Parental Leave Now Exists. Paid

For a very select group of employees at one of Richard Branson's subsidiaries

(Newser) - Richard Branson has come up with a parental leave policy that Michelle Duggar could have retired on probably sometime in the last century: 52 weeks of leave at 100% pay, reports TheStreet . "If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your business," says Branson...

NTSB: Pilot Thrown From Exploding Spaceship

Peter Siebold didn't know co-pilot had activated feather braking system

(Newser) - The surviving pilot of the Virgin Galactic spaceship that tore apart over the Mojave Desert was thrown clear of the disintegrating craft and did not know his co-pilot had prematurely unlocked the re-entry braking system, federal investigators said today. In its update on the still-evolving investigation, the National Transportation Safety...

Branson: I'll Still Be on Virgin's First Spaceflight

Dangers involved are 'worth it'

(Newser) - The crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo on Friday has unsurprisingly failed to deter Richard Branson: He'll still be on his company's first flight to space, he tells CNN. "There is no way I would ask others to go on a Virgin Galactic flight if I didn'...

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