Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970,and as of 2016 controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400.
Yuri's Night is an international celebration held every April 12 to commemorate milestones in space exploration. It is named for the first human to launch into space,Yuri Gagarin,who flew the Vostok 1 spaceship on April 12,1961. In 2011,Yuri's Night was celebrated at over 567 events in 75 countries on seven continents. Yuri's Night is often called the "World Space Party". The launch of STS-1,the first Space Shuttle mission,is also honored,as it was launched 20 years to the day after Vostok 1,on April 12,1981.
The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave,California,United States,at an elevation of 2,801 feet (854 m). It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft,being certified as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration on June 17,2004. The facility covers 2,998 acres and has three runways.
Virgin Galactic Holdings,Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California,and operates from New Mexico. The company develops commercial spacecraft and provides suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic's maiden spaceflight occurred in 2018 with its VSS Unity spaceship. Branson had originally hoped to see a maiden spaceflight by 2010,but the date was delayed,primarily due to the October 2014 crash of VSS Enterprise.
Air launching is the practice of releasing a rocket,missile,parasite aircraft or other aircraft payload from a mother ship or launch aircraft. The payload craft or missile is often tucked under the wing of the larger mother ship and then "dropped" while in flight. It may also be stored within a bomb bay,beneath the main fuselage or even on the back of the carrier aircraft,as in the case of the D-21 drone. Air launching provides several advantages over ground launching,giving the smaller craft an altitude and range boost,while saving it the weight of the fuel and equipment needed to take off on its own.
The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) was an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It was manufactured by The Spaceship Company,a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.
VSS Unity,previously referred to as VSS Voyager,is a retired SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered crewed spaceplane. It was the second SpaceShipTwo to be built and was part of the Virgin Galactic fleet. It first reached space as defined by the United States on 13 December 2018,on the VP-03 mission.
Steve Isakowitz is the President and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation assuming the position on October 1,2016. The Aerospace Corporation is a leading architect for the nation's national security and civil space programs with more than 4,000 employees and annual revenues of $1.1 billion. Isakowitz is a recognized leader across the government,private,space,and technology sectors,having served in prominent roles at Virgin Galactic,the U.S. Department of Energy,NASA,and the White House Office of Management and Budget. He is the co-author of the AIAA International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems,which received the Summerfield Book Award in 2003.
LauncherOne was a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed and flown by Virgin Orbit that had operational flights from 2021 to 2023,after being in development from 2007 to 2020. It was an air-launched rocket,designed to carry smallsat payloads of up to 300 kg (660 lb) into Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO),following air launch from a carrier aircraft at high altitude. The rocket was carried to the upper atmosphere on a modified Boeing 747-400,named Cosmic Girl,and released over ocean. Initial work on the program was done by Virgin Galactic,another Virgin Group subsidiary,before a separate entity —Virgin Orbit —was formed in 2017 to complete development and operate the launch service provider business separately from the passenger-carrying Virgin Galactic business.
The VSS Enterprise crash occurred on October 31,2014,when the VSS Enterprise,a SpaceShipTwo experimental spaceflight test vehicle operated by Virgin Galactic,suffered a catastrophic in-flight breakup during a test flight and crashed in the Mojave Desert near Cantil,California. Co-pilot Michael Alsbury was killed and pilot Peter Siebold was seriously injured.
Spirit of Mojave,previously Cosmic Girl is a Boeing 747-400 aircraft. A former passenger airliner operated by Virgin Atlantic,it was purchased by Virgin Galactic in 2015 to be used as the first stage launch platform for the air launch stage of the smallsat orbital launch vehicle,the LauncherOne. In 2017,the aircraft was transferred to the orbital launch subsidiary,Virgin Orbit,and its livery updated to Virgin Orbit. LauncherOne attempted its first launch on 25 May 2020;the launch was a failure. The first successful launch took place on 17 January 2021.
The Mars race,race to Mars or race for Mars is the competitive environment between various national space agencies,"New Space" and aerospace manufacturers involving crewed missions to Mars,land on Mars,or set a crewed base there. Some of these efforts are part of a greater Mars colonization vision,while others are for glory,or scientific endeavours. Some of this competitiveness is part of the New Space race.
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides is an American public speaker,co-creator of Yuri's Night,and an author on space exploration. She accumulated over five hours of weightless time as a Flight Director for Zero-G Corporation,and plans to travel to space as a "Founder Astronaut" on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. She is married to George T. Whitesides,Congressman from California who was elected in 2024.
Virgin Orbit was a company within the Virgin Group that provided launch services for small satellites. The company was formed in 2017 as a spin-off of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism venture to develop and market the LauncherOne rocket,which had previously been a project under Virgin Galactic. LauncherOne was a two-stage launch vehicle,air-launched from a Boeing 747 carrier aircraft,designed to deliver 300 kg of payload to low Earth orbit.
Stuart O. Witt is the Founder and Owner of S.O. Witt &Associates,LLC. Witt is the former CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port and a member of the National Space Council Users Advisory Group.
VP-03 was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity which took place on 13 December 2018,piloted by Mark P. Stucky and co-piloted by Frederick W. "CJ" Sturckow.
Mark P. "Forger" Stucky is an American test pilot and commercial astronaut. In these roles,he was an employee of Virgin Galactic,a private spaceflight company which is developing sub-orbital space tourism flights.
Beth Moses is chief space flight participant instructor and interiors program manager for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo program,and is a commercial astronaut,as classified by the Federal Aviation Administration. She was the first woman to make a spaceflight on a commercially launched vehicle,the VSS Unity VF-01 flight of 22 February 2019. She was also part of the six-member crew that flew in the first fully-crewed test flight to space on July 11,2021,aboard VSS Unity.
Virgin Galactic Unity 22 was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity which launched on 11 July 2021. The crew consisted of pilots David Mackay and Michael Masucci as well as passengers Sirisha Bandla,Colin Bennett,Beth Moses,and Richard Branson.
