May 14th, 2010 at 8:00AM: Space tourism may still be a few years from taking off (pun fully intended!) but competition is already bringing the price down dramatically. According to this story from MSNBC, a company known as Space Adventures has partnered with Armadillo Aerospace to make space tourism relatively affordable. In this case, "affordable" means $102,000, which is almost half the cost of rival Virgin Galactic's ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
virgingalactic posts
Space tourism already getting cheaper!
May 14th, 2010 at 8:00AM: Space tourism may still be a few years from taking off (pun fully intended!) but competition is already bringing the price down dramatically. According to this story from MSNBC, a company known as Space Adventures has partnered with Armadillo Aerospace to make space tourism relatively affordable. In this case, "affordable" means $102,000, which is almost half the cost of rival Virgin Galactic's ...Video of the week (3.26.10)
Mar 26th, 2010 at 6:00PM:
The Video of the Week for this week shows the first flight of White Night Two while carrying the Virgin Galactic "Enterprise" spacecraft. The flight took place just three days ago and is the latest step toward operating commercial passenger space flights in 2011.
Gadling was there when they unveiled SpaceShipTwo under very stormy skies. But they couldn't have had a more beautiful day to ...
Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise makes its first "Captive Carry Flight"
Mar 23rd, 2010 at 2:00PM:
It was just 4 months ago when the Gadling team visited the Mojave Desert space port to witness the unveiling of the VSS Enterprise - the actual Virgin Galactic plane that will be flying paying guests into space on the first commercial space flight service.
Yesterday was another huge milestone for the team - they took the VSS Enterprise for its first "captive carry flight". This flight ...Exclusive video: SpaceShipTwo unveiling
Dec 10th, 2009 at 7:40AM:
Gadling goes Galactic. Be sure to check out the photo coverage here. Music: Above & Beyond - Buzz.
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Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (Photos)
Dec 8th, 2009 at 9:00AM:
December 7th, 2009; there's a good chance it won't be remembered as a milestone in history. But it can certainly be marked as a major stepping stone in the human endeavor of space exploration.
At roughly 5.30pm on Monday evening, Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, Governor Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson proudly rolled out Virgin Galactic's first test flight ready spacecraft. ...Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo
Dec 7th, 2009 at 7:15PM:
It's a rainy, stormy day at the Mojave Spaceport - but it hasn't stopped over 800 press, crew, and future space tourists from gathering for Virgin Galactic's unveiling of their highly anticipated SpaceShipTwo commercial spacecraft.
This evening Richard Branson, Burt Rutan, and the Virgin Galactic team will be showing off the revolutionary machine that will be sending citizens into space ...Virgin Galactic preps SpaceShipTwo
Dec 2nd, 2009 at 1:30PM: Virgin Galactic continues its march toward bringing space tourism to the (wealthy) masses and is reportedly putting the finishing touches on SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle that will take adventurous, and well heeled, travelers into sub-orbit. According to this story from the Telegraph, test flights are scheduled to begin in early 2010, with regular flights getting underway in 2012.
SpaceShipTwo is ...Social network jokes result in 13 Virgin Atlantic employees being fired
Nov 1st, 2008 at 1:00PM: 13 Virgin Atlantic cabin crew members have found themselves in hot water (and without a job) after they posted inappropriate jokes about their employer on social networking site Facebook. The jokes involved the crew members calling passengers "chavs" (the British equivalent of the US Redneck) and making jokes about faulty engines that had to be replaced 4 times a year. Other jokes claimed that ...Virgin Galactic says thanks, but no thanks to space porn movie offer
Oct 3rd, 2008 at 3:30PM: Virgin Galactic, the first commercial space "airline" has reportedly declined an offer of $1 Million, to allow the production of the worlds first galactic porn movie. Regular flights on Virgin Galactic cost $200,000 each, so the offer of $1 Million seems quite generous, but Virgin Galactic politely declined. Space flights are scheduled to start in late 2009 or early 2010. Virgin plan to offer ...Sir Richard Branson's Private Jet
Aug 4th, 2008 at 1:00PM:
Ever wonder what it's like to be rich and famous and have your own private jet? Well, it looks a lot like this. Passing through the Mojave Desert airport last week, Gadling spotted Richard Branson's Falcon 900EX, the French made, long range, ultra luxe corporate jet. Sporting a blown up decal of Branson's iris on the tail fin (the same, minus additional artistic work, done for Virgin Galactic), ...Virgin Galactic unveils White Knight Two
Jul 28th, 2008 at 7:30PM:
Virgin Galactic unveiled the White Knight Two, their delivery vehicle for SpaceShipTwo at their Mojave construction facility today, to glorious fanfare and celebration.
White Knight Two is the second version of the mothership that will deliver the suborbital commercial space vehicle, SpaceShipTwo up to 40,000 feet before the daughtership cruises up into low orbit.
Virgin's rollout of the ...Flight attendant wins trip into space -- on Rocketplane!
Jul 17th, 2008 at 6:00PM: I thought that Rocketplane was a show on the cartoon network until I read an article this morning reporting that a French Flight Attendant won a trip into sub-orbit with the galactic airline. First, about the flight attendant: Mathilde Epron was working her daily flight schedule when she grabbed a quick Kit Kat snack, tossed the wrapper in the garbage and went on about her normal duties. Suddenly, ...Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo is on the way
Jun 10th, 2008 at 2:30PM: On the far side of the air travel spectrum, where oil isn't an issue, flight attendants aren't cranky and passengers aren't grumbling about extra baggage fees, Virgin Galactic is hanging out alone in the space travel sector. Earlier this year, VG announced plans for its new aircraft, the White Knight Two that is being built by their partner, Scaled Composites, along with the release of a variety ...The commercial space race heats up
Mar 26th, 2008 at 3:00PM:
Remember Virgin Galactic? It's Richard Branson's pet project to create the first ever commercial service to fly passengers into a lower orbit, tool around in zero gravity for a little while and float back to the surface. They teamed up with Scaled Composites, the group who built the spacecraft that won the Ansari X prize, to create SpaceShipTwo, which by 2009 should soon be able to carry six ...Virgin Galactic has arrived!
Jan 24th, 2008 at 11:40AM: Wow. Virgin Galactic revealed the design of its sub-orbital commercial aircraft yesterday and it's pretty sweet. Together with Scaled Composites' Burt Rutan, construction is now sixty percent complete with a tentative launch date some time in 2010. The current design, taken partially from the Space Ship 1 that won the Ansari X Prize in 2004, is based on a carrier aircraft that takes the ...Space Tourism Details Start to Fill In
Nov 29th, 2006 at 8:51AM: Not to steal too much thunder from Erik (who's been blogging about this for some time), but it looks like the details of space tourism are getting clearer.
Virgin Galactic has already collected $200,000 from its first 100 customers, called "founders," for their 150-minute flights on SpaceShipOne. More spots are still open for the next elite group of 400, called "pioneers" ($150,000 down payment). ...First Pakistani Woman to Tour Space
Nov 28th, 2006 at 5:26PM: Namira Salim is not an astronaut. She does music, art, sculpture and is a peace activist, but among all this she will become the first Pakistani woman to tour outer space. In 2008 she will set out with Virgin Galactic (sister company to Virgin Atlantic) as one of the good will ambassadors for the company. The lucky woman was chosen as a member of Virgin Galactic Founders Club out of some 40,000 ...Space Tourism Training
Apr 8th, 2006 at 1:58PM: If you thought
the 840-something vaccinations needed to go certain places in Asia and Africa was outrageous enough to keep you from
ever stepping foot on either continent or far too draining to endure before reaching the final destination imagine the
training involved before going into orbit. Seems many of you are rather excited and hopeful about touring the galaxy
one day when, say ...
