Company - Virgin Galactic
Product/Service - SpaceShipTwo
- Classification
- Human Spaceflight & Landers
- Category
- Microgravity Flight Service (Suborbital)
Suborbital Space Tourism
Point-to-point
- Fields
- Space Tourism
Suborbital
- Status
- Active
- First launch
- 2019
Virgin Galactic operates the reusable SpaceShipTwo spaceflight system.
This consists of WhiteKnightTwo, a custom-built, carrier aircraft, and SpaceShipTwo, the world’s first passenger carrying spaceship to be built by a private company and operated in commercial service.
Aerospace company Virgin Galactic has announced a first stage design scope for the build of a new aircraft capable of reaching speeds of Mach 3 (3,700 km/h, or 2,300 mph).
- The flight, designated Galactic 05 by the company, was its fifth commercial spaceflight since late June, and the sixth overall this year when including a company test flight in May. On board were two researchers, Kellie Gerardi and Alan Stern, and a space tourist, Ketty Pucci-Sisti Maisonrouge.
- Stern, vice president at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and a longtime advocate for suborbital research, flew on Galactic 05 primarily as a training mission for a future NASA-funded research mission on VSS Unity. He tested a biomedical harness and a mockup of a camera.
- Gerardi flew on Galactic 05 sponsored by the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS). She conducted three experiments in fluid dynamics and biomedical research that had been tested previously on parabolic flights operated by the National Research Council of Canada.
- Virgin Galactic conducted its first suborbital mission of 2024 on Jan. 26 as the company prepares end flights of its current spaceplane.
- The flight, called Galactic 06 by Virgin Galactic, carried four customers for the first time, along with its two pilots. Previous commercial flights had three customers on board along with a Virgin Galactic astronaut trainer.
- Virgin Galactic said then that, after Galactic 06, it would fly Unity again on Galactic 07 in the second quarter of the year and, perhaps, a Galactic 08 mission in mid-2024. The company then plans to retire VSS Unity and shift resources into Delta-class vehicle development.
- “With the production of our next-generation Delta-class ships underway, we look forward to expanding our flight capacity with testing expected to start next year and commercial service in 2026,” Colglazier said in the statement.
‘Galactic 07’ Mission Launch Window Opens June 8, 2024.
Virgin Galactic outlines economics of its future spaceplanes, SpaceNews, 2024-08-08.
Virgin Galactic seeks to raise money to accelerate growth of spaceplane fleet, 2024-11-06.
- Virgin Galactic is proposing to raise $300 million in additional capital to accelerate production of suborbital spaceplanes and a mothership aircraft the company says can fuel its long-term growth.
- The company had planned to use revenue from operations of its first two Delta-class spaceplanes, the first of which will start flying commercially in 2026, to fund development of future vehicles. But the company now says it wants to raise money to speed up work on two more Delta-class vehicles and a second mothership, allowing them to enter commercial service in 2028, two years earlier than previously projected.
- Most of the additional capital would go towards development of a second mothership that will look similar to VMS Eve, the company’s current aircraft that has been used on SpaceShipTwo flights and will be used by the first two Delta-class vehicles. Virgin Galactic plans to begin design work on the plane in 2025, moving into production in 2026 and testing in 2027 before entering commercial service in 2028.
Status Comment / Notes
New delta-class spaceplanes should start flying in 2026, as November 2024.
News, Research, Projects and Patents
| Title | Type | Date | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin Galactic forecasts limited revenues from initial commercial flights | News | 2023-08-02 |
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