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- Issue 8 |
| September 2007 | |
Visit the Virgin Galactic website |
| 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. |
| VG APPOINT MORE ACCREDITED SPACE AGENTS AROUND THE WORLD |
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 |
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. |
| WHITEKNIGHT TWO (WK2) ENGINES TO BE PRODUCED BY PRATT AND WHITNEY |
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." |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| GOOGLE ZEITGEIST CONFERENCE |
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 |
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 |
| OSHKOSH |
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 |
| CONCEPTUAL MOCK UP OF SS2 GOES TO NATIONAL SPACE CENTRE |
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 |
| KERRY ASTRONAUT ESCAPE PACKAGE |
| 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. |
|
Let the Journey Begin......... |
to make a reservation, visit www.virgingalactic.com |
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