Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson, is a British-American spaceflight company focused on providing suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and researchers. As the world's first commercial spaceline, it develops and operates its own reusable spaceflight systems, including the SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo. While the company is shifting its focus to Delta class vehicles for commercial service in 2026, its current partners include Redwire for manufacturing research payload lockers and it operates from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
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Starting in fall 2021, Virgin Galactic will stand down from test and commercial flights for about four months, delaying the start of commercial flights of VSS Unity.
Virgin Galactic expects the two post-May flights with employees and Richard Branson to take place in summer 2021.
Virgin Galactic's planned May 2021 flight will be followed by two additional flights: one with two pilots and a full cabin of company employees to test the passenger cabin, and one carrying company founder Richard Branson.
Virgin Galactic and Virgin Orbit are separate entities within the Virgin Group.
Sir Richard Branson is the Founder of Virgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic went public in 2019 by merging with Social Capital Hedosophia.
Virgin Galactic planned a 2020-12-12 test flight during which SpaceShipTwo was released from the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft and its hybrid rocket motor ignited but almost immediately shut down.
At the time of the November 2020 earnings call, Virgin Galactic expected to fly the second and third flights in the first quarter of 2021, with the first flight scheduled for November 2020.
Virgin Galactic will launch its SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane in mid-February 2021.
Virgin Galactic's team conducted a root cause analysis, completed corrective work, and carried out extensive ground testing following the 2020-12-12 engine shutdown.
The LauncherOne development program dates back to July 2012 when Virgin Galactic announced its intent to develop a small launch vehicle to complement SpaceShipTwo.
Virgin Galactic spun out the LauncherOne project into a separate company, Virgin Orbit, in 2017.
Virgin Galactic aborted a 2020-12-12 test flight of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle from Spaceport America after a computer system lost connection as the vehicle ignited its engine and the vehicle glided to a safe landing back at the spaceport.
Virgin Galactic completed post-flight inspections and a root cause analysis of the 2020-12-12 aborted flight, defined corrective actions, and has work already underway to address the issue.
Virgin Orbit is a sister company to Virgin Galactic and intends to deploy satellites using rockets released from under the wing of a Boeing 747 airliner.
Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo aircraft carrying the SpaceShipTwo vehicle named VSS Unity took off from Spaceport America at 10:24 a.m. Eastern on 2020-12-12.
Virgin Galactic had several rocket motors available at Spaceport America following the 2020-12-12 flight attempt.
Virgin Galactic relocated its vehicles to Spaceport America in February and conducted a series of captive carry and glide flights ahead of the 2020-12-12 powered flight attempt.
Virgin Galactic planned a third flight as soon as late in the first quarter of 2021 with company founder Richard Branson on board.
NASA awarded VCLS contracts in the original 2015 program to Firefly Space Systems, Rocket Lab, and Virgin Galactic.