Spaceflight Insider

News Archive / Tagged: Richard Branson

  • Richard Branson rides Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo into space

    Theresa CrossJuly 11th, 2021

    Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft took its first full crew, which included the company's billionaire founder Richard Branson, on a brief foray into space.

  • Virgin Galactic unveils its first ‘SpaceShip III’ suborbital spacecraft

    Matt HaskellApril 5th, 2021

    Last week, Virgin Galactic, the space tourism firm owned by Richard Branson, revealed its newest design, SpaceShip III, with the first vehicle in this line dubbed “VSS Imagine.”

  • Virgin Orbit set to perform first test launch

    Matt HaskellMay 23rd, 2020

    Virgin Orbit has released that they are finally ready to let their rocket fly for the first time, targeting Sunday morning at 10 AM PST from a location off the coast of Southern California.

  • SpaceShipTwo flies to space with 1st ‘test’ passenger

    Derek RichardsonFebruary 22nd, 2019

    Three new people are set to get their astronaut wings as Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo performed a second flight into space on a suborbital trajectory.

  • Virgin Galactic has two freshly-minted astronauts

    Jason RhianFebruary 11th, 2019

    The private space industry chalked up yet another win with the announcement that a recent SpaceShipTwo test flight earned two pilots their astronaut wings.

  • NTSB releases report on SpaceShipTwo accident

    Collin SkocikJuly 29th, 2015

    On Oct. 31, 2014, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed near Koehn Dry Lake in California, killing co-pilot Michael Alsbury. What has followed since the time of the accident has been a detailed investigation into what caused the crash, the findings of which have now been released.

  • Biggest commercial rocket deal in history signed by OneWeb, Arianespace and Virgin Galactic

    Tomasz NowakowskiJuly 7th, 2015

    OneWeb, a UK company building a new global satellite-based internet network could become the driving force of future big commercial rocket launches that would boost space industry growth in many countries. Last week’s deal signed by OneWeb and aerospace giants Arianespace and Virgin Galactic stand to be one of the largest commercial launch contracts in history.

  • OPINION: Commercial space learns a valuable, painful lesson

    Collin SkocikNovember 2nd, 2014

    It’s been a bad week for commercial space companies. On Tuesday, Oct. 28, Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo ship Deke Slayton was destroyed when the Antares rocket carrying it exploded just after liftoff from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Barely three days later, on Friday, Oct. 31, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed east of Mojave. No […]

  • First flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo delayed again

    Jason RhianSeptember 13th, 2014

    ABC News is reporting that space-tourism company Virgin Galactic has announced that the first flight of their commercial space tourism venture – has slipped to next year. Previously, the company’s owner, British billionaire Richard Branson, had given a number of dates as to when the WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo duo would begin ferrying paying customers into […]