{"id":13193,"date":"2019-05-11T00:29:06","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T16:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-galactic-to-move-remaining-spaceshiptwo-test-flights-to-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2019-05-11T00:29:06","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T16:29:06","slug":"virgin-galactic-to-move-remaining-spaceshiptwo-test-flights-to-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-galactic-to-move-remaining-spaceshiptwo-test-flights-to-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic to move remaining SpaceShipTwo test flights to New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Virgin Galactic\u2019s WhiteKnightTwo carrier jet, which hoists the company\u2019s rocket plane aloft, pictured at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virgin Galactic will conduct the remaining test flights for the company\u2019s SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane from southern New Mexico after moving staff and equipment from California over the next few months, officials announced Friday.<\/p>\n

Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, announced the move Friday in an event with New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

After completing two test flights to an altitude more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) in December and in February, Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo vehicle, its carrier aircraft, pilots and support staff will relocate to Spaceport America in southern New Mexico this summer, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Virgin Galactic adventure has been intertwined with New Mexico and Spaceport America right from the start, and our stories have unfolded together,\u201d Branson said.<\/p>\n

Spaceport America was built with more than $200 million in taxpayer funding, and the facility opened in 2011. But the spaceport sat mostly vacant due to delays in the development of Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, including a fatal crash in 2014 that set the program back more than three years.<\/p>\n

But Virgin Galactic officials said Friday that now is the right time to move the company\u2019s flight program from Mojave Air and Space Port in California, the staging base for all of the SpaceShipTwo flights to date, to Spaceport America, located about 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

\u201cVirgin Galactic is coming home to New Mexico, and it\u2019s coming home now,\u201d Branson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith today\u2019s announcement, New Mexico will become the first place on this beautiful planet of our\u2019s to regularly launch humans into space,\u201d Branson said. \u201cRarer still, is that those launches will be conducted by a private company.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Spaceport America was built in a remote part of southern New Mexico, around 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of Las Cruces. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic\u2019s CEO, said the company will add about 100 jobs in New Mexico, including pilots, mechanics, engineers and hospitality hosts. The company currently has around 45 employees in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Virgin Galactic\u2019s investment and presence here, we are now first not just in the country for this effort, but we are first in the world,\u201d Gov. Lujan Grisham said.<\/p>\n

Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo vehicle is designed to drop from the belly of a purpose-built carrier jet, called WhiteKnightTwo, and fire a hybrid rocket motor to reach an altitude of more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) into the airless environment at the edge of space, giving passengers a few minutes of weightlessness before descending back to Earth.<\/p>\n

With room for two pilots and up to six passengers, the reusable SpaceShipTwo rocket plane returns to a landing on the same runway from which it departed.<\/p>\n

The VSS Unity, Virgin Galactic\u2019s only space vehicle currently flying, completed two test flights above 50 miles Dec. 13 and Feb. 22. Two test pilots helmed the rocket plane on the December test flight, and another Virgin Galactic employee, astronaut trainer Beth Moses, rode in the passenger cabin in February to evaluate the experience for future commercial space tourists.<\/p>\n

Whitesides said the Feb. 22 flight was a \u201chuge step forward for the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis step has given us the confidence that it\u2019s the right time to move the spaceship,\u201d Whitesides said in remarks Friday in Santa Fe.<\/p>\n

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SpaceShipTwo fires its rocket motor during its Feb. 22 test flight. Credit: Virgin Galactic \/ MarsScientific.com \/ Trumbull Studios<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe have a bit more of our flight test program to do, which will complete in New Mexico,\u201d he said. \u201cAt that point, we will be in a place where we\u2019ll be able to start commercial operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Spaceport America officially opened in 2011, workers continue with final outfitting of Virgin Galactic\u2019s training facilities, where space tourists will prepare for their flights at Spaceport America, Whitesides said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter many years of work, the other side of the foundation, our ground operations, are at the point that we feel confident in moving the vehicles,\u201d Whitesides said. \u201cSo this summer, we will reposition our space system, consisting of a carrier aircraft, VMS Eve \u2026 and spaceship, VSS Unity, from Mojave, California, to Spaceport America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving employees to New Mexico over the summer will minimize family disruptions, especially for children in school, Whitesides said.<\/p>\n

The carrier aircraft and spaceship will fly to New Mexico once ground teams at The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic\u2019s sister company, complete work on VSS Unity\u2019s cabin interior, according to Whitesides.<\/p>\n

The Spaceship Company will remain based at Mojave to build a fleet of carrier jets and SpaceShipTwo vehicles for Virgin Galactic\u2019s fleet.<\/p>\n

Whitesides said Virgin Galactic is in the \u201cfinal stretch\u201d of the flight test program for SpaceShipTwo.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore commercial operations begin, we will need to finish evaluation of the new outfitted cabin, the experience and the training program for our future astronaut customers,\u201d Whitesides said. \u201cThat\u2019s work we still have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sen. Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, Richard Branson and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-New Mexico, during Friday\u2019s announcement in Santa Fe. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 600 people from more than 50 countries have paid deposits to fly on SpaceShipTwo, a trip that Virgin Galactic sells for $250,000.<\/p>\n

Branson himself plans to ride on a SpaceShipTwo flight. In February, he said he hoped to be able to fly by July 20, the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own very first flight will not take place until we\u2019ve settled in New Mexico,\u201d Branson said. \u201cBut for once, I\u2019m happy to wait because flying from Spaceport America is important to me, as it is, I think, to the people of New Mexico, who made all of this possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgin Galactic\u2019s WhiteKnightTwo carrier jet, which hoists the company\u2019s rocket plane aloft, pictured at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Credit: Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic will conduct the remaining test flights for the company\u2019s SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane from southern New Mexico after moving staff and equipment from California over the next few months, officials announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,1545,1597,1693,493,1598,1973,2652],"class_list":["post-13193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-new-mexico","tag-richard-branson","tag-space-tourism","tag-spaceport-america","tag-spaceshiptwo","tag-the-spaceship-company"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}