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- Issue 8 |
| September 2007 |
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Visit the Virgin Galactic website |
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Welcome to the eighth Virgin Galactic Newsletter and thank you for
registering an interest in
www.virgingalactic.com. It has been an eventful time
since our last newsletter, and in this edition we hope to bring you
up to date with our latest news and activities.
First of all, we would like to say that we have come to know the
team at Scaled Composites pretty well over the last few years and so
we were very saddened to hear in July of the news of a serious
incident at Mojave Airport. We sent our deepest sympathies to those
involved and their families, and also forwarded on the many messages
of support that we received from our clients and members of the
public. At the moment we are awaiting the results of the
investigation that Scaled Composites is undertaking along with the
relevant authorities before making any further comment. We can say
now, however, that construction and development work on the Project
is continuing and we remain committed to the future of our business
and space tourism in general.
It was also announced, earlier in July, that Northrop Grumman Corp.
had agreed to increase its stake in Scaled Composites from 40
percent to 100 percent. This is good news as far as we are concerned
– Northrop understand the Scaled organization and, having talked
with both parties, we believe that although Scaled will remain
unchanged for the most part, it will benefit from strong support
from the Northrop organization.
Meanwhile, in New Mexico, the competition to select the designers of
the main terminal and hangar building at Spaceport America also
reached its conclusion in July, with URS/Foster + Partners being
selected. Congratulations to them, and we look forward to the
concept that they presented being developed into a fully fledged
design in the coming weeks prior to the start of construction in
2008.
Mentioning 2008 reminds us to tell you that as far as we are
concerned, 2008 will be "The Year of the SpaceShip". We are planning
a couple of spectacular events to unveil WhiteKnightTwo and
SpaceShipTwo and to herald the start of test flights - more details
nearer the time. |
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| VG APPOINT MORE ACCREDITED SPACE AGENTS AROUND THE WORLD |
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Booking your spaceflight with us is even easier now as we have
appointed Accredited Space Agents (ASA's) in Canada, the United
States, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, the United Kingdom, Israel,
Europe and the UAE. We now have over 80 ASA's in 17 countries. They
have all been handpicked and trained by VG and are now fully
equipped to give expert local advice and of course to handle your
reservation. Click
here to find your nearest
Accredited Space Agent.
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| FIRST ACCREDITED SPACE OFFICE IN DUBAI |
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Members of the VG team travelled to Dubai in early May to
participate in the International Luxury Travel Market, which was
held in the World Trade Centre Exhibition Centre.
VG were delighted to announce to the world's press that Sharaf
Travel had been appointed as our first Accredited Space Office.
Salah Sharaf, Chairman of Sharaf Travel, announced their first
customer from the region, Mr. Ibrahim Sharaf, Sharaf Group Chairman.
Stephen Attenborough, VG Commercial Director, presented him with a
beautiful model of SpaceShipOne to mark the occasion.
Carolyn Wincer, VG Head of Astronaut Sales, presented to a packed
audience during the Exhibitor's Forum Programme, highlighting the
session with an animation of the VG Experience and a lively question
and answer session. The conceptual interior mock-up of SpaceShipTwo
gave thousands of exhibitors and visitors a chance to see and feel
what it would be like to sit in the new SpaceShip. |
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| WHITEKNIGHT TWO (WK2) ENGINES TO BE PRODUCED BY PRATT AND WHITNEY |
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In July, a deal was concluded and we were able to announce that
Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp's PW308 turbofan engine had been
selected to power the White Knight 2 (WK2).
"We are delighted to welcome Pratt & Whitney Canada on board the
White Knight 2 program," said Sir Richard Branson, founder of the
Virgin Group. "With their excellent reputation and our mutual desire
for innovation, it became clear that its PW308 engine is the best
and most reliable solution available today to help make our
aerospace adventure a true success."
"We are excited to be a part of this visionary commercial spaceship
program that will open up new opportunities for people to fly into
space," said Alain M. Bellemare, President, P&WC and Executive Vice
President, Pratt & Whitney Group Strategy & Development. "Our global
leadership is built on innovation and we look forward to helping
shape the future of suborbital spaceflight." |
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| SPACEPORT AMERICA ANNOUNCES WINNER OF DESIGN COMPETITION! |
The development of Spaceport America continues, and the recent
design competition for the main terminal and hangar building has
reached a conclusion. Three finalists were short-listed, and each
developed and presented their concepts to the teams from the New
Mexico Spaceport Authority and Virgin Galactic in July. As mentioned
earlier, the winners were URS/Foster + Partners, an Anglo-American
partnership, each with an impressive track record on landmark
projects. The URS/F+P design concept was clearly the best that we
saw from the finalists - it is iconic, well thought out, highly
energy efficient, considerate of the valley site and the view from
the nearby El Camino Real and - as we all hoped it would - it looks
like a spaceport! We look forward to sharing more details with you
in the coming months. |
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| THE TEMPTATION OF SPACE |
During the summer Philippe Starck, our Art Director, worked closely
with Louis Vuitton and La Société des arts technologiques (SAT) in
order to exhibit an incredible installation at the beautiful Espace
Louis Vuitton on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
The amazing dome and 3D projection allowed visitors to feel that
they were being rocketed through the light of an iris into the
beautiful blackness of space. With the fragile blue planet glowing
below, a sensation of floating in zero gravity/ weightlessness was
created.
Press, Philippe Stark, customers and VG team members joined Louis
Vuitton for a wonderful opening drinks reception which was attended
by many art lovers and VG customers. |
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| GOOGLE ZEITGEIST CONFERENCE |
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Stephen Attenborough was invited by Google to give a presentation at
their Zeitgeist Europe Conference in May at the exclusive Grove
Hotel near London, along with Mark Thompson (Director General, BBC),
Mathias Dopfner (Chairman/CEO, Axel Springer), Peter Bazalgette
(Chief Creative Officer, Endemol Group) and Chad Hurley
(Co-Founder/CEO, YouTube). Everyone participated in a lively
question and answer session but the most flattering moment for us
came when a member of the audience asked the group which other panel
member's job they would most like to have - each one said they would
most like Stephen's!! |
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| EDUCATIONAL DAY WITH COOL AERONUATICS AT THE RAeS |
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Virgin Galactic played a key role in a new event at the Royal
Aeronautical Society (www.raes.org.uk)
in London on Friday 6 July. 'Cool Aeronautics', the Society's first
ever event at Hamilton Place for young children was run to celebrate
the RAeS' Careers Centre's 10th anniversary this year. Children from
George Tomlinson School in Leytonstone and Harbinger School in Tower
Hamlets, London, came along for a fun-packed day to find out more
about the exciting world of aerospace. Classes of children were
invited to listen to a morning of presentations on life as an
airline pilot, safely equipment for a test pilot and an update on
Galactic. Susan Newsam, VG's Head of Marketing Production was
inundated with questions from the enthusiastic and excited students
who all wanted to become VG Astronauts! Workshops took place in the
afternoon and the winning team was presented with VG polo shirts.
To find out more about this year's event or future Cool Aeronautics
events please contact the Royal Aeronautical Society's Careers team
at
careers@raes.org.uk |
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| OSHKOSH |
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VG's President Will Whitehorn, and Chief Operating Officer Alex Tai,
presented at EAA AirVenture in July for the third year running and
proved as popular as ever drawing thousands to the audience. The
Theatre in the Woods presentation focused on the training and
medical programme for our customers.
www.eaa.org |
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| CONCEPTUAL MOCK UP OF SS2 GOES TO NATIONAL SPACE CENTRE |
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Our conceptual mock-up of the SpaceShip interior is still on tour,
and is now being exhibited at the National Space Centre, Leicester,
in the UK.
Until 19th September, visitors to the Museum will not only be able
see what the interior of SpaceShipTwo might look like, they will
also have an opportunity to view an animation which demonstrates the
dynamic air launch, flight and breathtaking VG experience.
The award winning National Space Centre is the UK's largest
attraction dedicated to space. Taking in six differently themed
galleries, visitors can see amazing space rockets, satellites and
capsules and take part in hundreds of interactive 'hands on
activities'........... Certainly worth a visit!
www.spacecentre.co.uk |
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| KERRY ASTRONAUT ESCAPE PACKAGE |
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| We're pleased to let you know that VG newsletter recipients can now
receive a discount with Kerry Hotels (10% off best available rate
with an automatic next grade room upgrade). Email
sales@kerryhotels.net and
quote Kerry Astronaut Escape Package. |
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Let the Journey Begin......... |
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On March 26th, in
Virgin Galactic are working with NMSA on the specification for the
Spaceport, and we are putting together our astronaut experience and
operational plans. The Virgin Galactic team have visited the site again
to make sure we understand the environmental issues. 
In January, the official inauguration of
The conceptual interior of the mock-up of SpaceShipTwo was exhibited in
London's Science Museum over the Half Term School Break in February.
Thousands of visitors, families and children had the opportunity to see
what the interior of the new spaceship may look like. 
Read all about the amazing Galactic story in Virgin Books' new
publication 'Destination Space', which features Virgin Galactic.