Latest Tier 1b Stories

Virgin Galactic's chief executive on Wednesday that the company plans to launch test flights into space in 2011, and is financially set after selling a stake to Abu Dhabi's Abaar last year. Virgin Galactic unveiled the first commercial passenger spaceship in December. The vessel represents an expensive gamble on creating a commercial space tourism industry, according to Reuters. "We've passed a lot of the biggest hurdles," Will Whitehorn told reporters on the sidelines of a space...

Cecil Field airport in Jacksonville, Florida was awarded a federal license on Monday to fly commercial space vehicles being designed to ferry tourists and researchers beyond Earth's atmosphere, Reuters reported.Cecil Field has one of the biggest runways in Florida at 12,500-feet long and 200-feet wide. The Jacksonville Aviation Authority, which worked to get its commercial spaceport licensing for four years, plans to offer the runway to a range of commercial space operators including Virgin...

SWARTHMORE, Pa., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Joshua Bush, CTA, vice president of Park Avenue Travel, one of only 50 travel consultants in the United States to have been hand-selected as a Virgin Galactic Accredited Space Agent (ASA), will attend the world premiere of SpaceShipTwo in Mojave, Calif., today. Bush is the only travel advisor in Pennsylvania accredited to reserve seats for trips to suborbital space. The unveiling of SpaceShipTwo, developed by Scaled Composites, marks the next...

Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson unveiled the new bullet-shaped commercial rocket plane that will give tourists the opportunity to take a ride into space and see the Earth while experiencing the thrill of weightlessness.The spacecraft, about the size of a large business jet with wide windows and seats for six, represents a costly gamble on a commercial space tourism industry.The British billionaire said Monday that he hopes to sell tickets for the Virgin Galactic spaceliner at $200,000...

RICHMOND, Va., Dec. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Karen Kilyk of Covington International Travel in Virginia, a member of the prestigious Virtuoso® travel network, is among only 50 U.S. travel advisors invited to attend the world premier of SpaceShipTwo, the space vehicle developed by Scaled Composites to take private passengers to space. (Virtuoso is the exclusive retail travel agency network for Virgin Galactic throughout the Americas.) This exclusive event hosted by Virgin Founder and Chairman...

On Oct. 4, 2004, the first privately manned spacecraft named SpaceShipOne, demonstrated that a rocket capable of carrying passengers could fly 62 miles above the earth and could do it twice in two weeks, according to the Associated Press. By showing its reliability and commercial viability, SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize.Due to the success of SpaceShipOne, British mogul Richard Branson announced he would be using the technology for a second generation ship called SpaceShipTwo, under the...

A U.S. competitor in space tourism, Rocketplane Global, has abandoned its Oklahoma facilities and is struggling to stay in business, its chief executive said. The company fulfilled its 5-year, $18 million tax-break obligations to the state of Oklahoma by paying that much for 200,000 hours of design work, President and Chief Executive Officer George French told The Oklahoman. Falling short of its goal of bringing tourists into space, the company is moving to Wisconsin, the newspaper said....

Visitors at the EAA AirVenture convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Monday got the first glimpse of a new aircraft that is being touted as the future of space travel.Virgin Galactic unveiled its WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, which the company plans to use in order to launch crafts into space.Developers of the craft, Burt Rutan and billionaire Sir Richard Branson were in attendance as WhiteKnightTwo soared through the sky as spectators snapped photographs.According to the Associated Press,...

Founder Sir Richard Branson will take his first-ever flightaboard the Virgin Galactic mothershipOSHKOSH, Wis., July 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --When Virgin Galactic Mothership "Eve" (formerly known as WhiteKnightTwo) arrives and executes several low passes on July 27 to kick off the EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2009 weeklong series of showcase flights and air shows, she'll be performing the first of four scheduled flight demonstrations. The Monday arrival will be Virgin Mothership (VMS) Eve's...

Construction of Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built spaceport designed specifically for space-bound commercial and fee-paying passengers, commenced Friday in New Mexico.Gov. Bill Richardson said the spaceport, located on a remote high-desert range, is only possible because of investments on the part of the state and Virgin Galactic, which is putting over $300 million into developing the space launch system that will operate from the site. "We took a risk, we gambled and we...