{"id":18637,"date":"2018-02-13T20:45:05","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/microsoft-edge-boosts-spaceshiptwo-into-virtual-space-on-virgin-galactics-website\/"},"modified":"2018-02-13T20:45:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:45:05","slug":"microsoft-edge-boosts-spaceshiptwo-into-virtual-space-on-virgin-galactics-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/microsoft-edge-boosts-spaceshiptwo-into-virtual-space-on-virgin-galactics-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft Edge boosts SpaceShipTwo into virtual space on Virgin Galactic\u2019s website"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"VR
Virgin Galactic\u2019s website offers a multimedia-enhanced VR view of VSS Unity, the company\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, and its WhiteKnightTwo mothership. (Microsoft Edge \/ Virgin Galactic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virgin Galactic hasn\u2019t yet started taking tourists into space on its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, but the company now offers a virtual SpaceShipTwo tour on its website, with a big assist from Microsoft Edge Web Showcase.<\/p>\n

The upgraded website is a lot clickier \u2014 and continues to provide basic information about Virgin Galactic as well as videos, stills and online updates. But the centerpiece is a 3-D, VR-enhanced digital model of VSS Unity, the SpaceShipTwo plane that\u2019s undergoing tests at California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port.<\/p>\n

Start your tour by tapping on the website\u2019s \u201cExplore\u201d button.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re plugged into a virtual-reality or mixed-reality headset, or looking through a smartphone viewer, you can use gaze controls to navigate your way through a 360-degree environment.<\/p>\n

Focusing on hotspots will bring up videos and graphics about SpaceShipTwo, its WhiteKnightTwo mothership and the Virgin Galactic team.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a parallel 3-D tour that\u2019ll give you a similar experience even without the headset.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uvWrirMnZEs<\/p>\n

Microsoft Edge\u2019s Divya Kumar and Virgin Galactic\u2019s Tom Westray tell the story behind the extreme website makeover today in a posting on Microsoft\u2019s Windows Experience Blog.<\/p>\n

\u201cPartnering with Virgin Galactic offered the Microsoft Edge team a unique opportunity to use web technology as a digital gateway to tell the story of the future of human space exploration through unique, exclusive and memorable experiences,\u201d they write.<\/p>\n

In a video about the project, Virgin Galactic Vice President Julia Tizard says she sees parallels between what her company is doing and what Microsoft Edge is aiming for.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe spirit of what Microsoft Edge is bringing to the Virgin Galactic website is a very kindred spirit,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s the same creativity, the same innovation, the same storytelling mode that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virgin Galactic\u2019s story has had its low points and its high points, but now it\u2019s about to enter a crucial chapter: the rocket-powered phase of VSS Unity\u2019s flight tests, shooting for the edge of space.<\/p>\n

The company says its schedule for commercial operations at Spaceport America in New Mexico will depend on how the test program proceeds, but hundreds of customers already have paid as much as $250,000 to reserve their ride.<\/p>\n

For those would-be spacefliers, and for everyone else tracking Virgin Galactic\u2019s progress, the remade website could well become a star on the list of favorites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virgin Galactic\u2019s website offers a multimedia-enhanced VR view of VSS Unity, the company\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, and its WhiteKnightTwo mothership. (Microsoft Edge \/ Virgin Galactic) Virgin Galactic hasn\u2019t yet started taking tourists into space on its SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, but the company now offers a virtual SpaceShipTwo tour on its website, with a big assist […]<\/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":[4017,5279,4917,492,4636],"class_list":["post-18637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-edge","tag-mixed-reality","tag-virgin-galactic","tag-virtual-reality"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18637"}],"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=18637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}