galactic founded 2004 operating bases spaceport america mojave air & space port long beach airport parent company virgin group headquarters long beach california key people richard branson chairman george whitesides ceo website www.virgingalactic.com virgin galactic is a spaceflight company within the virgin group . it is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists suborbital launches for space science missions and orbital launches of small satellites . virgin galactic plans to provide orbital human spaceflights as well . 1 the company also hopes to develop an orbital launch vehicle launcherone . spaceshiptwo virgin galactic s suborbital spacecraft is air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as white knight two . virgin galactic s founder sir richard branson had initially suggested that he hoped to see a maiden flight by the end of 2009 2 but this date has been delayed on a number of occasions most recently by the october 2014 in flight loss of spaceshiptwo vss enterprise . contents 1 history and operations 1.1 formation and early activities 1.2 the spaceship company 1.3 commencement of sub space test flights 1.4 october 2014 in flight loss of vss enterprise 1.4.1 investigation and media comment 1.5 2015 pivot to smallsat launcher development 2 investors 3 collaborations 3.1 potential collaboration with nasa 3.2 oneweb satellite internet access provider 4 operational aspects 4.1 key personnel 4.1.1 personnel 4.1.1.1 pilot corps 4.2 aircraft and spacecraft 4.2.1 mothership 4.2.2 spacecraft 4.2.2.1 spaceship two 4.2.2.1.1 spaceshiptwo s projected performance 4.2.2.1.2 overview of the ss2 spacecraft flights 4.2.2.2 launcherone 4.2.2.2.1 engines 4.2.2.2.2 2015 redesign new engines larger payloads new carrier aircraft 4.2.3 fleet 4.3 commercial spaceflight locations 5 competition 6 criticism 7 see also 8 references 9 external links history and operations edit formation and early activities edit virgin galactic was founded in 2004 by british entrepreneur sir richard branson who had previously founded virgin atlantic airline and the virgin group and who had a long personal history of balloon and surface record breaking activities . as part of branson s promotion of the firm he has added a variation of the virgin galactic livery to his personal business jet the dassault falcon 900ex galactic girl g galx . 3 4 the spaceship company edit the spaceship company tsc is a wholly owned subsidiary aerospace production company of virgin galactic . it was originally founded by branson through virgin group which owned 70 % and aerospace engineer burt rutan through scaled composites which owned 30 % to build commercial spaceships and launch aircraft for space travel . from the time of tsc s formation in 2005 the launch customer was virgin galactic which contracted to purchase five spaceshiptwos and two whiteknighttwos ; 5 scaled composites was contracted to develop and build the initial prototypes of wk2 and ss2 and then tsc began production of the follow on vehicles beginning in 2008 . 6 7 by july 2014 tsc was only halfway through the completion of a second spaceshiptwo and had commenced construction of a second whiteknighttwo . in 2012 virgin galactic acquired the 30 % stake still owned by scaled composites making tsc a subsidiary . 8 commencement of sub space test flights edit in july 2008 richard branson predicted the maiden space voyage would take place within 18 months . 2 in october 2009 virgin galactic announced that initial flights would take place from spaceport america within two years . 9 later that year scaled composite announced that white knight two s first spaceshiptwo captive flights would be in early 2010 . 10 both aircraft did fly together in march 2010 . 11 the credibility of the earlier promises of launch dates by virgin galactic were brought into question in october 2014 by its chief executive george whitesides when he told the guardian we ve changed dramatically as a company . when i joined in 2010 we were mostly a marketing organisation . right now we can design build test and fly a rocket motor all by ourselves and all in mojave which i don t think is done anywhere else on the planet . 12 on december 7 2009 spaceshiptwo was unveiled at the mojave spaceport . 13 14 branson told the 300 people attending each of whom had booked rides at 200 000 each that flights would begin in 2011 . however in april 2011 branson announced further delays saying i hope 18 months from now we ll be sitting in our spaceship and heading off into space . 15 by february 2012 spaceshiptwo had completed 15 test flights attached to white knight two and an additional 16 glide tests the last of which took place in september 2011 . 16 a rocket powered test flight of spaceshiptwo finally took place on april 29 2013 with an engine burn of 16 seconds duration . the brief flight began at an altitude of 47 000 feet and reached a maximum altitude of 55 000 feet . while the ss2 achieved a speed of mach 1.2 920 mph 17 this was less than half the 2 000 mph speed predicted by richard branson . spaceshiptwo s second supersonic flight achieved a speed of 1 100 mph for 20 seconds ; while this was an improvement it fell far short of the 2 500 mph for 70 seconds required to carry six passengers into space . however branson still announced his spaceship would be capable of launching 100 satellites every day . 18 on may 14 2013 richard branson stated on virgin radio dubai s kris fade morning show that he would be aboard the first public flight of spaceshiptwo which had again been re scheduled this time to december 25 2013 . 19 maybe i ll dress up as father christmas branson said . 15 the third rocket powered test flight of spaceshiptwo took place on january 10 2014 and successfully tested the spaceship s reaction control system rcs and the newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicle s tail booms . virgin galactic ceo george whitesides said we are progressively closer to our target of starting commercial service in 2014 . 20 interviewed by the observer at the time of her 90th birthday in july 2014 branson s mother eve told reporter elizabeth day of her intention of going to space herself . asked when that might be she replied i think it s the end of the year adding after a pause it s always the end of the year . 21 in september 2014 richard branson described the intended date for the first commercial flight as february or march of 2015 ; by the time of this announcement a new plastic based fuel had yet to be ignited in flight . 22 to date the three test flights of the ss2 have only reached an altitude of around 71 000 ft approximately 13 miles ; in order to receive a federal aviation administration licence to carry passengers the craft needs to complete test missions at full speed and 62 mile height . following the announcement of further delays uk newspaper the sunday times reported that branson faced a backlash from those who had booked flights with virgin galactic with the company having received 80 million in fares and deposits . 23 tom bower author of branson the man behind the mask told the sunday times they spent 10 years trying to perfect one engine and failed . they are now trying to use a different engine and get into space in six months . it s just not feasible . 24 bbc science editor david shukman commented in october 2014 that branson s enthusiasm and determination are undoubted . but his most recent promises of launching the first passenger trip by the end of this year had already started to look unrealistic some months ago . 25 following crash of vss enterprise test flights of the replacement spaceship unity are set to begin again in after ground tests are completed in august 2016 . 26 october 2014 in flight loss of vss enterprise edit main article vss enterprise crash at 10.51 am pst 31 october 2014 the fourth rocket powered test flight of one of the company s spaceshiptwo craft vss enterprise ended in disaster as it broke apart in midair with the debris falling into the mojave desert in california shortly after being released from the mothership . initial reports attributed the loss to an as yet unidentified in flight anomaly . 27 28 the flight was the first test of spaceshiptwo with new plastic based fuel replacing the original a rubber based solid fuel that had not met expectations . 29 39 year old co pilot michael alsbury was killed and 43 year old pilot peter siebold was seriously injured . investigation and media comment edit initial investigations found that the engine and propellant tanks were intact showing that there had not been a fuel explosion . telemetry data and cockpit video showed that instead the air braking system appeared to have deployed incorrectly and too early for unknown reasons and that the craft had violently broken apart in midair seconds later . u.s. national transportation safety board chairman christopher hart said on 2 november 2014 that investigators had determined spaceshiptwo s tail system was supposed to have been released for deployment as the craft was traveling about 1.4 times the speed of sound ; instead the tail section began pivoting when the vehicle was flying at mach 1 . i m not stating that this is the cause of the mishap . we have months and months of investigation to determine what the cause was . asked if pilot error was a possible factor hart said we are looking at all of these issues to determine what was the root cause of this mishap . he noted that it was also unclear how the tail mechanism began to rotate once it was unlocked since that maneuver requires a separate pilot command that was never given and whether the craft s position in the air and its speed somehow enabled the tail section to swing free on its own . 30 in november 2014 branson and virgin galactic came under criticism for their attempts to distance the company from the disaster by referring to the test pilots as scaled composites employees . 31 virgin galactic s official statement on 31 october 2014 said virgin galactic s partner scaled composites conducted a powered test flight of spaceshiptwo earlier today . ... local authorities have confirmed that one of the two scaled composites pilots died during the accident . 32 this was in strong contrast to public communications previously released concerning the group s successful flights which had routinely presented pilots craft and projects within the same organizational structures as being virgin galactic flights or activities of the galactic team . 31 33 34 the bbc s david shukman commented that even as details emerge of what went wrong this is clearly a massive setback to a company hoping to pioneer a new industry of space tourism . confidence is everything and this will not encourage the long list of celebrity and millionaire customers waiting for their first flight . 25 35 at a hearing in washington d.c. on 28 july 2015 36 37 and a press release on the same day 38 the ntsb cited inadequate design safeguards poor pilot training lack of rigorous faa oversight and a potentially anxious co pilot without recent flight experience as important factors in the 2014 crash . they determined that the co pilot who died in the accident prematurely unlocked a movable tail section some ten seconds after spaceship two fired its rocket engine and was breaking the sound barrier resulting in the craft breaking apart . but the board also found that the scaled composites unit of northrop grumman which designed and flew the prototype space tourism vehicle didn t properly prepare for potential human slip ups by