Virgin Galactic announced this week it laid off about 185 employees, 18% of its workforce, to better streamline the development of its Delta-class spaceplane. The company also announced during its earnings call that it will begin to slow its flights down before pausing them all together.
Expand Expanding Close
In June of 2023 Virgin Galactic began commercial flights of its VSS Unity spaceplane for paying customers. Its ticket holders wait list to fly is over 800 long, with only four available seats, that’s a lot of flying just to get through existing customers and more are on the way. So how many flights has Virgin Galactic performed? Here’s a list of every flight from Virgin Galactic in the year 2023.
Expand Expanding Close
On November 2, Virgin Galactic plans to fly its next sub-orbital spaceflight on is SpaceShipTwo spaceplane platform. This mission, like Galactic 01, is a research flight rather than a joy ride for the ultra-wealthy.
Expand Expanding Close
Friday Virgin Galactic launched its latest commercial missions out of New Mexico. However this time there was no fanfare, livestream, or post launch interviews with the customers. They simply went up, had fun, and came back down.
Expand Expanding Close
On Thursday morning, Virgin Galactic successfully completed its inaugural commercial flight with a crew consisting of four passengers and two pilots. This flight distinguished itself from previous ventures by both Blue Origin and Virgin, as it focused solely on business rather than leisure.
Expand Expanding Close
After almost two years since its last powered flight to space, Virgin Galactic is finally back in the “saddle” with its first unpowered glide, post renovations. Next up, the company plans to do a powered test flight before resuming commercial spaceflights.
Expand Expanding Close
Virgin Galactic has been in an idle mode for the past year and a half as it worked through an FAA investigation and refurbishment of its aircrafts. Now the company sounds ready to pick up the pace, with flights returning soon.
Expand Expanding Close
During July’s Unity 22 spaceflight of Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, The New Yorker reports that the pilots deviated off their approved course. In the report, they state the FAA has begun an investigation; Virgin Galactic replies.
Expand Expanding Close
Virgin Galactic has announced its next spaceflight mission after sending founder Richard Branson to space on its previous mission.
Expand Expanding Close
While Virgin Galactic ran into some technical difficulties with the live views from the cabin of VSS Unity, you can now watch the crew experience spaceflight. The crew spent just over a minute above the 50 miles high definition of space but experienced ~2-3 minutes of zero gravity.
Expand Expanding Close
The moment that Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group founder, has been waiting to do for decades has come. He will finally join an elite group of people to ride a vehicle into space with Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed mission.
Expand Expanding Close
Set aside some time on Sunday to catch Virgin Galactic’s very first livestream of a crewed spaceflight on the company’s SpaceShipTwo Unity spaceplane. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson will be a passenger on the first fully crewed spaceflight on SS2, and special guests include host Stephen Colbert and artist Khalid.
Expand Expanding Close
After an unsuccessful attempt to reach space last December, today, Virgin Galactic reached space from Spaceport America earlier today with Pilots CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay aboard VSS Unity.
Expand Expanding Close
After being forced to pause most of its operations at its Spaceport America site in mid-November due to concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic, Virgin Galactic is planning on resuming operations under strict guidelines to keep their workers safe.
Virgin announced that it will be opening its first window to launch its VSS Unity sub-orbital spaceplane from its facilities at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Expand Expanding Close