Category Archives: Virgin Galactic

Spanish company launches reusable rocket in breakthrough for European space ambitions

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Startup PLD Space says launch of Miura-1 is ‘just the beginning’ amid European drive to send satellites into orbit

Spanish company PLD Space launched its reusable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday from a site in south-west Spain, carrying out Europe’s first fully private rocket launch and offering hope for its stalled space ambitions.

The startup’s test nighttime launch from Huelva came after two previous attempts were scrubbed. The Miura-1 rocket, named after a breed of fighting bull, is as tall as a three-storey building and has a 100kg (220-pound) cargo capacity. The launch carried a payload for test purposes but this would not be released, the company said.

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Virgin Galactic successfully flies tourists to space for first time

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Six individuals were aboard VSS Unity space plane, including first mother-daughter duo to venture to space together

Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity, the reusable rocket-powered space plane carrying the company’s first crew of tourists to space, successfully launched and landed on Thursday.

The mission, known as Galactic 02, took off shortly after 11am ET from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

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To the moon and beyond: what 2022 holds for space travel

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From lunar missions to anti-asteroid defence systems, there are plenty of exciting scientific developments to look forward to

This year promises to be an important one for space exploration, with several major programmes reaching the launch pad over the next 12 months. The US is to return to the moon, undertaking a set of missions intended to establish a lunar colony there in a few years. China is expected to complete its Tiangong space station while Europe and Russia will attempt to land spacecraft on Mars, having failed at every previous attempt. India, South Korea and Japan are also scheduled to put a number of missions into space.

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Rocket men: how billionaires are using celebrities as PR for their space projects

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Critics see the ‘awful business’ of private space tourism as having little technological or exploration value

As Star Trek’s iconic Captain James T Kirk, he voyaged the universe for the good of humanity. The nonagenarian actor William Shatner’s brief, real-life thrill ride off the planet today, however, is much less about advancing the species as promoting the fortunes of Blue Origin, the private space company owned by the Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos that’s taking him there.

Booking arguably the most famous fictional space traveler in history to front only the second crewed flight of Bezos’s New Shepard rocket system has secured a vast slew of positive publicity that not even the huge wealth of the world’s richest man could otherwise have purchased.

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Virgin Galactic to sell space flight tickets starting at $450,000 a seat

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The company said it will have three consumer offerings: a single seat, a multi-seat package and a full-flight buy out

Virgin Galactic has said it will open ticket sales on Thursday for space flights starting at $450,000 a seat, weeks after the company’s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, took a high profile flight to to the edge of space.

Branson soared 55 miles (88 km) above the New Mexico desert aboard a Virgin Galactic rocket plane on 11 July and safely returned in the vehicle’s first fully crewed test flight to space, a symbolic milestone for a venture he started 17 years ago.

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Richard Branson flies to edge of space in Virgin Galactic passenger rocket plane

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Spaceplane went into sub-orbital flight days ahead of a rival launch by Jeff Bezos

The British entrepreneur Richard Branson has successfully flown to the edge of space and back in his Virgin Galactic passenger rocket plane, days ahead of a rival launch by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as the billionaires compete to kick off a new era of space tourism.

Seventeen years after Branson founded Virgin Galactic to develop commercial spacecraft and cater to future space tourists, the spaceplane went into sub-orbital flight on Sunday morning, reaching 55 miles (88km) above the Earth’s surface. The launch was slightly delayed until 10.40ET due to weather conditions at the Virgin Galactic’s operational base at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert.

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Virgin Galactic to launch space plane with Richard Branson on board

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The billionaire, along with two pilots and three other passengers, will reach 55 miles above Earth for about an hour

British entrepreneur Richard Branson is set to fly to the edge of space in his Virgin Galactic passenger rocket plane on Sunday, days ahead of a rival launch by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, as the two billionaires race to kick off an era of space tourism.

Branson’s extraterrestrial venture Virgin Galactic will send its space plane into sub-orbital flight on Sunday morning, aimed at reaching 55 miles above Earth at its peak altitude.

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Richard Branson aims to beat Jeff Bezos into space by nine days

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Virgin Galactic founder has announced he will take off on board the next test flight on 11 July

Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson is aiming to beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos into space by nine days.

Branson’s company announced on Thursday evening that its next test flight will take place on 11 July and that its founder will be among the six people on board. All other passengers are company employees. It will be only the fourth trip to space for Virgin Galactic.

The winged rocket ship – the first carrying a full crew – will launch from New Mexico after the US Federal Aviation Administration gave Virgin permission to take paying customers to space in late June, after a successful test flight in May.

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Virgin Atlantic agrees £1.2bn rescue deal amid coronavirus slump

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Investors pump in funds, loans and deferrals alongside Branson’s £200m injection

Virgin Atlantic has announced a £1.2bn rescue deal to allow Sir Richard Branson’s grounded passenger airline to survive another 18 months and aim to return to profit in 2022, after four months without scheduled flights.

The privately funded recapitalisation package, a combination of cash injections, loans, and deferrals, was finally confirmed on Tuesday after weeks of talks with potential investors, after Virgin’s attempts to garner state support were rebuffed.

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Richard Branson to sell $500m worth of Virgin Galactic shares

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Billionaire puts more than fifth of stake up for sale to help prop up airline and rest of group

Sir Richard Branson is to sell $500m (£405m) in Virgin Galactic shares in order to prop up his airline and leisure interests, which have been ravaged by the coronavirus crisis.

In a statement to the New York Stock Exchange, Branson’s Virgin Group said it intended to sell 25m shares via a series of transactions, prompting a 5% fall in the share price of Virgin Galactic during pre-market trading.

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Richard Branson: ‘Aviation can be carbon neutral sooner than we realise’

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The relentlessly upbeat entrepreneur believes efficiency and electricity could stop airlines worsening the climate crisis

Life has been quite a trip for Sir Richard Branson so far, and this weekend will be no exception as he flies to the US from Tel Aviv via London with space rockets on his mind.

He is heading to Wall Street to ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange as his spaceflight company, Virgin Galactic, becomes a listed company tomorrow.

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