Virgin Galactic, Branson's space venture

[Kryten]

VSS Unity has completed it's first glide flight.

[Nibb31]

On 09/09/2016 at 8:57 AM, kerbiloid said:

Like this, but twin Boeing.

Twin Boeing = Stratolaunch. 

Stratolaunch is a dead end, for many reasons. The main one being that nobody wants to build a rocket for it.

[tater]

Wish they'd do their testing here in NM at White Sands after we built them a facility at State expense instead of CA.

[Kryten]

 

[Kryten]

VSS Unity had another glide flight today.

[tater]

Quote

Branson hints at Virgin Galactic commercial flights by 2019

http://krqe.com/2017/04/06/branson-hints-at-virgin-galactic-commercial-flights-by-2019/

From my local news station. The sad thing for those of use who cannot afford to blow the price of a house or a supercar on a joyride is that watching this craft fly from the spaceport my tax dollars built would be about as interesting as going to the local airport. Rockets like NS, or a tourism version of an F9 (if that was a thing), then watching them land would be more like the Ray Bradbury notion of a spaceport I have in my head.

Edited April 7, 2017 by tater

[insert_name]

Launcher 1 has made a lot of progress with a test article preparing for static fires, and a first launch next year, they have also secured their first defense payload

http://spacenews.com/virgin-orbit-wins-first-defense-department-launch-contract/

[tater]

^^That is Virgin Orbit, right? They split that off from Galactic I think.

[insert_name]

24 minutes ago, tater said:

^^That is Virgin Orbit, right? They split that off from Galactic I think.

yeah, I didn't think that virgin orbit needed to be put in a separate thread though

[tater]

Just trying to remember if they were separate, I agree completely on keeping them together.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Has anyone heard anything about scheduling for Unity's first powered flight?

[DDE]

On ‎17‎.‎11‎.‎2017 at 12:21 AM, insert_name said:

yeah, I didn't think that virgin orbit needed to be put in a separate thread though

Why? Doesn't the new version of Galactic have nothing to do with space now? 

[tater]

The companies were split entirely apart. The recent investment by the Saudis in the tourism part would have made military payloads for orbital a non-starter I think.

Edited November 20, 2017 by tater

[tater]

I'm gonna assume this is the right thread

 

Edited April 5, 2018 by tater

[tater]

 

[sevenperforce]

18 minutes ago, tater said:

 

Damn, I should have figured this into my launch thread. Not that it's orbital, but....

[tater]

This is a flight entirely within the atmosphere, BTW.

[insert_name]

Is it going to be a powered flight this time?

[tater]

 

 

[Ultimate Steve]

Yay! Stuff is happening! Maybe this will actually fly customers after all.

[sh1pman]

 

[StrandedonEarth]

That is a great thing to see. I hope testing continues to go well and they can get into commercial operations in due course. 

[tater]

 

[_Augustus_]

15 minutes ago, tater said:

 

It's.... real???

[tater]