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☆ Virgin Galactic says an alignment pin detached from space plane on latest tourism flight
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Virgin Galactic is grounded after the company said a small part unintentionally detached from the mothership of its rocket-powered space plane on its latest space tourism flight. The flight, called Galactic 06, launched on January 26 and marked Virgin Galactic’s first space tourism mission of the year after entering commercial service in 2023. The company discovered the part loss during routine checks and notified government regulators on January 31, “in accordance with regulations,” Virgin Galactic said in a statement. Virgin Galactic said it will work alongside the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial rocket launches, on a review of the issue. “Virgin Galactic flights occur in restricted airspace and at specific geographical launch locations that control the hazards to people or structures on the ground,” Virgin Galactic’s statement reads.

Persons: ”, . Virgin Galactic, “, Virgin Galactic Organizations: CNN, Virgin, Galactic, . Virgin, Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, Virgin Galactic

☆ Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson won’t invest more money in the space tourism company he founded
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Shares of Virgin Galactic, the space tourism venture founded by Richard Branson, are plunging after the British billionaire said he has no plans to invest more money in the company as he says it has “sufficient funds” already. ET market open on Monday, Virgin Galactic stock was down 16%, trading at less than $2 per share. Virgin Galactic has had a landmark year, flying its first customers to the edge of space after years of waiting. Branson had previously sold off a large chunk of his personal investment in Virgin Galactic, ditching about $1 billion worth of stock between 2020 and 2021. Branson added in his comments to the Financial Times that he remains excited about Virgin Galactic and noted the company has “really proved itself and the technology.”

Persons: Richard Branson, Branson, hasn’t, ”, Virgin Galactic’s, Michael Colglazier’s Organizations: CNN —, Virgin Galactic, Financial Times, — Virgin, Galactic, Times, Virgin, Virgin Group, Virgin Galactic’s, VSS Unity, VSS Locations: Virgin

☆ Virgin Galactic launches three paying customers to space
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Virgin Galactic notched its third commercial spaceflight, launching three paying customers on a roughly 90-minute flight that briefly touched the edge of space. Also on board were two Virgin Galactic pilots, commander Nicola Pecile and Michael Masucci. Virgin Galactic stock has shed more than 30% of its value over the past month despite the company’s recent successes. On its first commercial launch, Virgin Galactic carried members of the Italian air force and an Italian engineer on a science research mission. All told, Virgin Galactic has sold about 800 tickets, including 600 at earlier price points up to $250,000 and, more recently, another couple hundred at $450,000 per ticket.

Persons: Virgin Galactic’s, Ken Baxter, Timothy Nash, Adrian Reynard, Nicola Pecile, Michael Masucci, Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, Michael Colglazier, Jeff Bezos, Jon Goodwin, Baxter, “ I’ve, Sir Richard, ”, Ken Baxter's Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic, Virgin, VSS Unity, America Locations: Vegas, British, South Africa, United Kingdom, New Mexico, Texas, Italian, Antigua

☆ Virgin Galactic’s first space tourists had a ‘surreal experience’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-12 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Billionaire Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, and it built up a backlog of 800 paying passengers. Andres Leighton/APVirgin Galactic’s rocket-powered space plane carried its first group of tourists on a brief trip Thursday. Entrepreneur and health and wellness coach Keisha Schahaff and her daughter Anastatia Mayers were the first space travelers from Antigua. The skull’s lower jaw has particularly confounded scientists because it combines features of Homo sapiens and another ancient human relative — the mysterious Denisovans. ConsequencesA close-up shot reveals the details of the ancient moss Takakia growing on the Tibetan Plateau.

Persons: Richard Branson, Jon Goodwin, Anastatia Mayers, Keisha Schahaff, Andres Leighton, Mayers, Goodwin, Xuedong Li, Hupehsuchus nanchangensis, Shu, Long Cheng, James Webb, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic, AP Virgin Galactic’s, International Whaling Commission, Wuhan Center, China Geological Survey, University of Bristol, James Webb Space, CNN Space, Science Locations: Antigua, Russia, India, China, Tibetan, Wuhan, Egypt, Thailand, Switzerland

☆ Virgin Galactic to launch first tourism mission after decades of promises
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-10 | by ( Jackie Wattles | Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Virgin Galactic — the space tourism company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson — is finally prepared to launch its first space tourists to the edge of the cosmos, a major step toward delivering on decades of promises. Meet the crewThis mission comes on the heels of the success of Virgin Galactic’s first commercial mission, which launched in June. Goodwin was one of the earliest ticket holders on Virgin Galactic, which opened its first sales more than a decade ago. Virgin Galactic has sold about 800 tickets, including 600 at prices up to $250,000 and another couple hundred at $450,000 per ticket. In the lead-up to 2023, Virgin Galactic had been undergoing a lengthy “enhancement” process to upgrade its flight hardware.

Persons: Richard Branson —, Keisha Schahaff, Anastatia Mayers, Jon Goodwin, Goodwin, Virgin Galactic’s, Jeff Bezos, Galactic Schahaff, Mayers, “, ” Schahaff, Oliver Daemen, Bezos, don’t, ”, John McFall, What’s, Michael Colglazier, Virgin Galactic, Colglazier Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic, VSS Unity, Virgin, VSS, Galactic, Space, Humanity, University of Aberdeen, Blue, European Space Agency Locations: British, New Mexico, Antigua, American, Caribbean, Scotland

☆ A herd of orphan elephants could be the key to bringing back the woolly mammoth
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. But a key question is whether such animals could survive if they roamed the Arctic tundra as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. Eventually, the bonded herd will make its way into the wild, where its progress can be monitored for the next decade. Sign up here to receive in your inbox the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland and Katie Hunt. They find wonder in planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.

Persons: paleobiologist Jordan Mallon, It’s, Esme Ashe, Jepson, Katie Jones, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s, “ Oppenheimer, ”, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Canadian Museum of Nature, University of Cambridge, Southern Resident, for Whale Research, Virgin Galactic’s, CNN Space, Science Locations: Botswana, China, Ottawa, Chile, Chicago . Wild, Pacific Northwest, North America

☆ Meet the crew of Virgin Galactic’s first private passenger spaceflight
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The first Olympian and the first mother-daughter duo to venture to space will be aboard Virgin Galactic’s inaugural private astronaut mission in August. Virgin Galactic and commercial spaceflightThe flight window opens for the mission, dubbed Galactic 02, on August 10, and the launch will stream live on Virgin Galactic’s website. The announcement comes on the heels of the successful launch and landing of Virgin Galactic’s first commercial spaceflight on June 29. The passengers boarded the VSS Unity, attached to a massive aircraft called VMS Eve, at Virgin Galactic’s spaceport in New Mexico. VMS Eve took off like an airplane, delivering VSS Unity to a designated altitude.

Persons: Keisha Schahaff, Anastatia Mayers, ” Schahaff, Jon Goodwin, Goodwin, Parkinson’s, ” Goodwin, don’t, Beth Moses, Moses Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic’s, Space, Humanity, . Virgin Galactic, University of Aberdeen, Virgin Galactic, Virgin, Italian Air Force, VSS, VSS Unity Locations: Caribbean, Antigua, Scotland, New Mexico

☆ Ghostly lights paint a new portrait of the Milky Way
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. CNN —The universe is filled with infinite mysteries, and scientists are tackling them, one celestial puzzle at a time. Across the universeAn artist's illustration depicts the Milky Way seen through a neutrino lens, which is shown in blue. National Science FoundationThere is no shortage of scintillating imagery of the Milky Way galaxy — but we’ve never seen it from this perspective. Astronomers used a detector sunk deep into the thick ice of Antarctica to trace “ghost particles” that created a new portrait of the Milky Way.

Persons: James Webb, we’ve, you’ve, exoplanet, Halla, Adam Makarenko, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic’s, James Webb Space, European Space Agency, . National Science, Schmidt Ocean Institute, Beatles, ”, Keck, —, CNN Space, Science Locations: Antarctica, Costa Rica, Strait, Gibraltar, Spain

☆ Virgin Galactic launches first paying customers to the edge of space
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Virgin Galactic, the venture founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, successfully launched its first paying customers to the edge of space — a milestone two decades in the making. (Future Virgin Galactic flights, however, are expected to include a range of high-profile customers.) Bennett’s role was to assess the comfort and function of the flight, using that information to inform future changes Virgin Galactic might make to its rocket-powered space plane, VSS Unity. Organizations such as NASA have routinely flown experiments on suborbital rockets, including Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin missions. In a tragic 2014 accident, Virgin Galactic’s space plane broke apart during flight, killing the mission’s copilot, Michael Alsbury.

Persons: Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic’s, Jeff Bezos’s, Walter Villadei, Angelo Landolfi, Colin Bennett, Pantaleone, Branson, Burt Rutan, Paul Allen, Hamish Harding, Michael Alsbury, — Organizations: CNN, Virgin Galactic, Italian Air Force, Virgin, SpaceX, Italy’s National Research Council, Branson, VSS, VSS Unity, NASA, International, National Research Council, Microsoft, Galactic, OceanGate, Scaled Composites, Origin, Congress, Federal Aviation Administration, FAA Locations: British, New Mexico, United States

☆ Virgin Galactic defies gravity
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The Virgin Galactic (SPCE.N) countdown has begun. Richard Branson’s space tourism company said on Thursday it plans to launch its first commercial flight within days. Virgin Galactic also depends on there being enough people willing to pay $450,000 for a few minutes in weightlessness. If Virgin Galactic could carry six passengers a week, and earn a 20% EBITDA margin, it would someday generate about $30 million of such earnings. For a company that has so badly missed previous projections, it’s Virgin Galactic’s valuation that is out of this world.

Persons: Richard, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Robert Cyran, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Streisand Neto Organizations: YORK, Reuters, Virgin, Galactic, Origin, SpaceX, Southwest Airlines, Twitter, Thomson Locations: Cava

☆ Virgin Galactic launches high-stakes flight carrying passengers to the edge of space
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The space plane is designed to then detach from the mothership, fire its rocket engine and swoop straight up with its two pilots at the controls. Virgin Galactic confirmed just before 12:30 p.m. The space plane then coasted back to a landing back at New Mexico’s Spaceport America. The SpaceShipOne technology was parlayed into a larger space plane design, called SpaceShipTwo, which Virgin Galactic still flies today. Virgin Orbit, a sister company to Virgin Galactic that is focused on launching satellites to space on a small rocket, filed for bankruptcy in April.

☆ Virgin Galactic set for first spaceflight since Richard Branson's trip two years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The flight, slated for late May, will carry two pilots and a crew of four Virgin Galactic employees, the company announced Monday. If all goes well, Virgin Galactic expects to begin commercial services out of its spaceport in New Mexico in late June. At the time Virgin Galactic went public in 2019, it had also been touting plans to start commercial service in 2020. They include two pilots — CJ Sturckow and Mike Masucci — as well as four Virgin Galactic employees who will ride in the passenger cabin. Virgin Orbit, a sister company to Virgin Galactic that is focused on launching satellites to space on a small rocket, filed for bankruptcy in April.

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