Tag: mojave aerospace ventures

Virgin Galactic Venture into Space

23 June 2010

Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire CEO of the Virgin group, turned heads a few years ago with his latest spacey venture. Branson plans to give eager makeshift astronauts a sub-orbital ride in space via his Virgin Galactic air/space-craft. This space tourism industry was founded in 2004 and is currently operated in New Mexico, USA, with Branson leading the charge.

Around 2002, a contest was launched to see which company could produce an aircraft that could fly into a sub-orbital space trip, return to Earth and make the trip again. Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, was part of the Mojave Aerospace Ventures project that won the $10 million contest in 2004. Their craft was named SpaceShipOne, and Branson was immediately trying to top it.

Branson helped create SpaceShipTwo, a lighter, faster aircraft able to fly higher and carry more passengers. It was released to the public in December of 2009, and it’s still undergoing testing to make sure it’s designed well enough to carry people into the Earth’s orbit and back repeatedly without incident. The ship is now being called the VSS (Virgin SpaceShip) Enterprise.

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