More than 2 1\/2 years after the fatal breakup of Virgin Galactic\u2019s experimental rocket plane, Richard Branson is poised to revive powered test flights as the billionaire entrepreneur targets his first journey into space by the middle of next year.<\/p>\n
Following the completion of a series of glide-only sorties, powered tests are set to take place every three weeks with the aim of extending them into space by November or December, Branson said in an interview. After his own flight, full commercial passenger operations should start by the end of 2018, he said.<\/p>\n
Branson\u2019s update is the most detailed since the October 2014 crash of Virgin Galactic\u2019s original SpaceShipTwo, in which co-pilot Michael Alsbury died when the craft was torn apart after he prematurely unlocked a braking mechanism.<\/p>\n
While the accident in the Mojave Desert came just months before the planned maiden commercial flight, Branson said the appetite for travel to the edge of space remains undimmed, leaving room for a number of competitors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will never be able to build enough spaceships,\u201d Branson said Wednesday in Hong Kong following the introduction of Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. flights from Melbourne. \u201cThe demand is enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branson was an early leader in the new space race after founding Virgin Galactic in 2004. Since then, rivals like the Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin LLC and Elon Musk\u2019s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, have gained momentum by focusing on reusable rockets to cut the cost of space travel.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, SpaceX successfully launched its 10th Falcon 9 rocket of 2017, little more than a week after sending a total of 11 communication satellites using two rockets, whose first-stage boosters were recovered for reuse later.<\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s company has contracts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration valued at about $4.2 billion to transport astronauts and supplies to the Space Station.<\/p>\n
Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard rocket has flown to suborbital space five times since November 2015. Suborbital space is high enough for passengers to experience weightlessness, but not high enough to orbit the Earth.<\/p>\n
Branson, who turns 67 on July 18, said there\u2019s a role for various launch systems, especially in the deployment of satellites, viewed as a likely mainstay of Virgin Galactic\u2019s future business.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s Virgin Orbit arm is working on a two-stage air-launched rocket that would carry small satellites, with test rockets set to be dropped from an aircraft in the first quarter of 2018, the Briton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is definitely the demand for all three,\u201d Branson said of the competing ventures. \u201cWe can take off at 24-hour\u2019s notice, put a couple of satellites up and come back again. With ground-based rockets, there\u2019s quite a long waiting time.\u00a0Elon has bigger rockets, so he has advantages there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Branson declined to comment directly on Donald Trump\u2019s June 30 announcement that he\u2019ll revive a Cold War-era council that helped shape space policy, or on the\u00a0U.S. president\u2019s suggestion that private companies are set to play \u201can important role\u201d in the next phase of space technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think myself and Jeff Bezos and Elon are just getting on with it,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve heard of anything majorly exciting that\u2019s come out of the administration as far as space is concerned, but maybe they\u2019ll surprise us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Virgin Galactic will also play a role in developing elements of Boom Technologies\u2019s planned supersonic plane, Branson said, and will build parts of the XB-1 demonstrator on which the U.S. startup plans to commence work before the end of this year, according to<\/p>\n
Branson, a vocal opponent of the U.K. leaving the European Union, said he\u2019s hopeful the country is now headed for a Brexit \u201ckinder\u201d to business following the outcome of May\u2019s general election, which left the ruling Conservatives with fewer seats and dependent on the support of a smaller party.<\/p>\n
Richard Branson is poised to revive powered test flights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":171335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[19228],"class_list":["post-218530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-virgin-galactic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218532,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218530\/revisions\/218532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}