Richard Branson – Spaceflight Now

Virgin Galactic to move remaining SpaceShipTwo test flights to New Mexico

May 10, 2019

Virgin Galactic will conduct the remaining test flights for the company’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane from southern New Mexico after moving staff and equipment from California over the next few months, officials announced Friday.

Video and photo highlights of Virgin Galactic’s historic SpaceShipTwo test flight

December 14, 2018

Check out video highlights released by Virgin Galactic of Thursday’s test flight by the company’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane to an altitude of 271,000 feet, above a boundary recognized by the U.S. government as the edge of space.

Virgin Galactic accomplishes milestone test flight to the edge of space

December 13, 2018

With two veteran test pilots at the controls, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane climbed to the edge of space for the first time Thursday in a major achievement for Richard Branson’s long-sought ambition to begin regular commercial hops with space tourists, and the first piloted flight by a U.S. vehicle above an altitude of 50 miles since the last space shuttle mission in 2011.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo completes second powered test flight

May 30, 2018

Helmed by two test pilots, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane set new altitude and speed records for the company’s test program Tuesday during a powered flight over California’s Mojave Desert.

Video: SpaceShipTwo rocket plane soars on supersonic test flight

April 6, 2018

Virgin Galactic’s commercial SpaceShipTwo rocket plane made its highest and fastest flight to date Thursday, moving the company’s space tourism ambitions closer to reality more than three years after a fatal accident suspended powered test flights.

Photos: VSS Unity’s first powered test flight

April 6, 2018

These images captured by photographer Gene Blevins show Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo space plane making its first rocket-powered test flight Thursday over California’s Mojave Desert, then gliding back to a runway landing.

Virgin Galactic completes first rocket-powered test flight since 2014

April 5, 2018

Virgin Galactic’s second piloted suborbital spaceship made its first rocket-powered test flight Thursday, three-and-a-half years after the loss of an earlier model in an accident that killed one test pilot and injured another.

Branson vows to press ahead, NTSB investigation begins

November 2, 2014

Richard Branson, the charismatic leader of Virgin Galactic and a driving force in the push to commercialize space travel, vowed to find out what caused the fatal crash of his company’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, to learn from the tragedy and to press ahead with plans to carry paying customers into space.