Virgin Galactic eager to get back to space race

“To have three or four people who are fairly entrepreneurial competing with each other means we’ll be able to open up space at a fraction of the price that governments have been able to do so in the past,” Branson said as he toured Virgin Galactic’s 150,000-square-foot LauncherOne rocket design and manufacturing plant in Long Beach, California. 

With plans to unveil its new SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot winged space plane designed to take thrill-seekers, researchers and commercial customers on five-minute hops into suborbital space, reaching altitudes of about 62 miles, Virgin Galactic is also moving ahead with plans to build its own space launchers. 

This would include the new passenger vehicle and LauncherOne rockets designed to lift small satellites starting as early as next year, company officials said. 

Branson’s rivals in the privately funded space race include SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Branson’s venture has been grounded since its first spaceship, designed and built by Northrop Grumman Corp’s Scaled Composites, was destroyed on Oct. 31, 2014, during a test flight in Mojave. The accident killed one pilot and dashed Virgin Galactic’s plans to start commercial operations as early as this year. 

The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the accident, determined that the co-pilot prematurely released locks that pin the ship’s rotating tail section into place. The new spaceship includes a pin that prevents the pilots from unlocking the tail section too early, before aerodynamic forces have built up to keep the tail from rotating on its own.

The Spaceship Company, or TSC, already had taken over manufacturing of the second spaceship in a planned fleet of five when the accident occurred. 

“Ultimately, we want to be able to produce our own point-to-point aircraft,” Branson said. Virgin Galactic is selling rides on SpaceShipTwo for $250,000. So far, nearly 700 people have signed up.