{"id":18165,"date":"2019-01-24T23:03:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-24T15:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-galactics-richard-branson-talks-up-spacesuits-and-his-countdown-to-space-trip\/"},"modified":"2019-01-24T23:03:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-24T15:03:22","slug":"virgin-galactics-richard-branson-talks-up-spacesuits-and-his-countdown-to-space-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-galactics-richard-branson-talks-up-spacesuits-and-his-countdown-to-space-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic\u2019s Richard Branson talks up spacesuits and his countdown to space trip"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_476096\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-476096\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-476096\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190124-underarmour-630x420.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin Plank and Richard Branson\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190124-underarmour-630x420.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190124-underarmour-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190124-underarmour-1260x839.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/190124-underarmour.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-476096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson share a moment with Nick Cienski, Under Armour\u2019s lead spacesuit designer. (Under Armour Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, today took the wraps off a partnership with Under Armour to create the spacesuit and the footwear that he could well be wearing on a SpaceShipTwo suborbital space trip within a few months.<\/p>\n<p>Under Armour will also create a performance training program for Virgin Galactic\u2019s hundreds of customers \u2014 including the opportunity to train at Under Armour\u2019s lab in Portland, Ore.<\/p>\n<p>The actual apparel design and other details will have to wait for a future reveal. But Branson, ever the optimist, suggested that the kickoff for Virgin Galactic\u2019s commercial space operation at Spaceport America in New Mexico is coming soon.<\/p>\n<p>Branson gave his latest outlook today on \u201cCBS This Morning\u201d during a joint appearance with Kevin Plank, founder and CEO of Under Armour. The publicity push came six weeks after a SpaceShipTwo test flight took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California and sent a pair of pilots above Virgin Galactic\u2019s 50-mile space milestone.<\/p>\n<p>The British-born billionaire said he expected such flights to become routine this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will hope to go up in the middle of this year myself,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got another test flight in a handful of weeks, taking place in Mojave. Then we\u2019ll have another one a few weeks later, then another one. And then we move everything to New Mexico, where we\u2019ve got a beautiful spaceport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over the past decade, New Mexico has invested more than $220 million&nbsp;to get Spaceport America ready for Virgin Galactic, and Virgin Galactic has spent millions of dollars in New Mexico on lease payments, fees and preparations for space tourism operations.<\/p>\n<p>Financial terms of the partnership with Under Armour have not been disclosed, but Under Armour has agreed to provide custom spacesuits and footwear for Virgin Galactic passengers and pilots, plus uniforms for the Virgin Galactic team at Spaceport America.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Virgin Galactic and Under Armour reveal space suit partnership\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OFrHeHhy7GY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Although the apparel designs haven\u2019t yet been unveiled, they\u2019re certain to look more stylish than the bulky spacesuits and boots that have long been associated with NASA spacewalks. The SpaceShipTwo cabin is pressurized, and the stratospheric phase of the flight lasts just a few minutes. That scenario is likely to call for safety procedures that have more in common with commercial airline flights than with shuttle-style space journeys.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to designing Virgin Galactic\u2019s space garb, Under Armour says it will design customized programs for astronaut physical preparation and recovery, with a focus on enhancing mobility, strength, fitness, nutrition and sleep.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the astronauts, we\u2019re putting together a training program for them, offering them to go to our own performance center in Portland, Oregon, to go spend and prep, getting ready to go into space,\u201d Under Armour\u2019s Plank said. \u201cAnd when they do, they can go up and they can feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Plank said it was \u201cnot out of the question\u201d that he\u2019d take a ride on SpaceShipTwo himself, although he noted that there are more than 600 customers ahead of him in line. Those would-be spacefliers have paid as much as $250,000 for a reservation.<\/p>\n<p>At that price, the spacesuit should be included for free. In any case, Branson said looking good will be part of the package.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re going to space, it\u2019s going to be \u2026 you\u2019ve got married, you\u2019ve had your children, and the other thing you\u2019re going to remember is that day you go to space,\u201d Branson said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very important, therefore, that when you look in the mirror before you go to space, you feel the part.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson share a moment with Nick Cienski, Under Armour\u2019s lead spacesuit designer. (Under Armour Photo) Virgin Galactic\u2019s billionaire founder, Richard Branson, today took the wraps off a partnership with Under Armour to create the spacesuit and the footwear that he could well be wearing on [&hellip;]<\/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":[5075,291,4887,1693,493,1598,1973,1464,4943,492],"class_list":["post-18165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-clothing","tag-commercial-space","tag-fashion","tag-richard-branson","tag-space-tourism","tag-spaceport-america","tag-spaceshiptwo","tag-spacesuit","tag-under-armour","tag-virgin-galactic"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18165"}],"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=18165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}