Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic “Virgin Galactic, the privately-funded space company owned by Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments PJS, today unveiled its newly completed SpaceShipTwo. The rollout ceremony was attended by Sir Richard Branson and his family, Virgin Galactic’s Future Astronauts, and partners. Based on the smaller X-PRIZE winning SpaceShipOne designed by Burt Rutan, SpaceShipTwo is designed to take a crew of two pilots and up to […]

Whitesides Says Virgin Galactic is Undeterred at the AIAA SciTech Conference (With video of the speech), SpaceRef Business “Whitesides told the audience that while the October accident that destroyed SpaceShipTwo and took the life of co-pilot Michael Alsbury was the “the toughest thing we could undergo, nine weeks later, we are turning the corner and looking toward the future – our team and investors remain committed to the goal of […]

NTSB Investigative Update on Crash of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo “The National Transportation Safety Board issued an investigative update today into the crash of SpaceShip Two on Oct. 31, 2014, in Mojave, Calif. – The on-scene portion of the investigation into the crash of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, a test flight conducted by Scaled Composites, has concluded and all NTSB investigators have returned to Washington, DC. – The SpaceShipTwo wreckage has been […]

Past Transit Tragedies Point to a Way Forward for Virgin Galactic, Smithsonian “Private spaceflight hit a large bump in the road to orbit last week, with Orbital Sciences’ rocket explosion followed days later by Virgin Galactic’s fatal spaceplane crash. But if early aviation and aerospace efforts can teach us anything, it’s that the key to surviving such tragedies is transparency and learning from any mistakes. And in a counterintuitive twist, […]

NTSB Accident Investigation of SpaceShipTwo Could Take a Year to Complete Analysis, SpaceRef “In their last press briefing from Mojave, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released no new clues to the cause of the breakup of SpaceShipTwo. The NTSB did provide new timeline details and an update of what they’ve been doing. Further press briefings will take place from Washington as needed.” Statement From Virgin Galactic On Latest NTSB […]

Virgin Galactic Media Update 2 November 2014 4:30 pm PT “Now is not the time for speculation. Now is the time to focus on all those affected by this tragic accident and to work with the experts at the NTSB, to get to the bottom of what happened on that tragic day, and to learn from it so that we can move forward safely with this important mission.”

Virgin Galactic pilot Todd Ericson talks with NTSB investigator Joe Sedor at the #SpaceShipTwo accident site. pic.twitter.com/mhaAjG3X1K — NTSB (@NTSB) November 2, 2014 Investigator Joe Sedor, Acting Chairman Hart and Special Assistant Vishal Amin at #SpaceShipTwo accident site. pic.twitter.com/2yy8IqDlKk — NTSB (@NTSB) November 2, 2014 Acting Chairman Hart w/ Virgin Galactic pilot Todd Ericson & investigators at #SpaceShipTwo accident site. pic.twitter.com/hkOCJC5qlK — NTSB (@NTSB) November 2, 2014 NTSB investigator Scott […]

Statement from Scaled Composites on SpaceShipTwo Crew “The Scaled Composites family lost a respected and devoted colleague yesterday, Michael Alsbury, who was the co-pilot for the test flight of SpaceShipTwo. Peter Siebold, the Director of Flight Operations at Scaled Composites, was piloting SpaceShipTwo. He is alert and talking with his family and doctors. We remain focused on supporting the families of the two pilots and all of our employees, as […]

Comments from Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic “This is a very tough time for all of us at Virgin Galactic, The Spaceship Company and Scaled Composites, and our thoughts remain with the families of the brave Scaled pilots, and all those affected by this tragedy. We are determined to find out what went wrong and are working with the authorities to get that information. It is too early […]

Fatal crash deals blow to Virgin Galactic, MSNBC “Chris Hayes reports on a fatal crash during the test flight for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, a commercial space ship designed to give passengers the sensation of weightlessness for $250,000 per flight. Guest: Keith Cowing, editor, NASAWatch.com”