Virgin Galactic Welcomes SpaceShipTwo Unity to Spaceport America, New Mexico
February 13 2020 - 06:56PM
Business Wire
Virgin Galactic Captive Carry Test Flight Marks
Relocation of Spaceflight Operations to Spaceport America
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) (“Virgin Galactic”
or “the Company”), a vertically integrated aerospace company, has
successfully completed another vital step on its path to commercial
service, relocating SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, to its commercial
headquarters at Spaceport America’s Gateway to Space building.
VSS Unity, attached to the carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, made the
journey from Mojave, California, where the Company’s manufacturing
facilities are based. The vehicle landed at 15:49 MT, where it was
greeted by an enthusiastic group of teammates who will operate the
spaceship in New Mexico.
This captive carry flight provided an opportunity for engineers
to evaluate VSS Unity for over three hours at high altitude and
cold temperatures, a longer period of time than is experienced
during missions to space. These environmental evaluations of system
performance are difficult to replicate at ground level, making
captive carry missions a vital component of VSS Unity’s flight test
plan.
The flight also provided a valuable opportunity to conduct pilot
training and familiarization, with veteran Italian Air Force Test
Pilot Nicola ‘Stick’ Pecile joining Chief Pilot Dave ‘Mac’ Mackay
in the cockpit of the spaceship for the first time. Nicola is the
fifth pilot to complete a flight in VSS Unity. VMS Eve was piloted
by Mike ‘Sooch’ Masucci and Frederick ‘CJ’ Sturckow.
The move of the spaceship to Spaceport America marks a key step
in the relocation of Virgin Galactic’s to the state of New Mexico.
In May 2019, Virgin Galactic announced that as part of this move,
approximately 100 teammates would move to New Mexico from Mojave,
California, Spaceport America would become operational and the
vehicles would be transferred to the Gateway to Space. Today,
nearly all of those team members have relocated, the spaceport is
operationally ready, and both VMS Eve and VSS Unity have now
arrived. Of Virgin Galactic’s total current New Mexico work force,
more than 70 team members have been hired locally, the result of a
conscious effort to attract New Mexico-based talent.
“New Mexico is going to be the world’s launchpad for commercial
spaceflight,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said. “Today
marks another step closer: We will have a genuine Space Valley in
Southern New Mexico, a hotbed of innovation and achievement and
space tourism development. I congratulate Virgin Galactic’s
workers, George Whitesides and Sir Richard Branson on today’s
successful flight – and once again I say to them: Welcome to New
Mexico, we’re very glad to have you!”
“When Virgin Galactic started moving to New Mexico last year,
everyone felt the sheer magnitude of the task ahead, but we were
encouraged and excited by the team’s confidence and strong vision
for the future,” said George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic.
“Today we realized the next step in that dream by bringing our
beautiful spaceship to New Mexico. We still have significant work
ahead, but we are grateful to all our teammates who have made this
day a reality.”
The relocation of VSS Unity to Spaceport America enables the
Company to engage in the final stages of its flight test program.
This will begin with a number of initial captive carry and glide
flights from the new operating base in New Mexico, allowing the
spaceflight operations team to familiarize themselves with the
airspace and ground control. Once these tests are complete, the
team will carry out a number of rocket-powered test flights from
Spaceport America to continue the evaluation of VSS Unity’s
performance. During this phase, the final spaceship cabin and
customer experience evaluations will also be concluded in
preparation for the start of commercial spaceflight operations.
The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s design, testing and
manufacturing arm, remains firmly rooted in Mojave, California.
While VMS Eve and VSS Unity are now based in New Mexico, they will
make periodic journeys back to Mojave to support ground and flight
tests of new spaceships, as well as for vehicle maintenance and
upgrade activities. There is significant progress being made on the
next two spaceships, including achieving the Weight on Wheels
milestone for the second spaceship and completing over 50% of the
structural and system part fabrication for the third spaceship,
which were announced in January.
Dan Hicks, Spaceport America’s Executive Director, congratulated
the Virgin Galactic team, saying, “This truly is the dawn of a new
era for the commercial space sector. We are tremendously proud of
our foundational partner Virgin Galactic - as we see and support
their historic progress in making human space flight a reality for
our beautiful world. The New Mexico and Spaceport America
leadership will continue our strong support for our visionary
Virgin Galactic teammates; and we are looking forward to an
exciting 2020!”
About Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is a vertically-integrated aerospace company,
pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and
researchers, as well as a manufacturer of advanced air and space
vehicles. Using its proprietary and reusable technologies and
supported by a distinctive, Virgin-branded customer experience, it
is developing a spaceflight system designed to offer customers a
unique, multi-day, transformative experience. This culminates in a
spaceflight that includes views of Earth from space and several
minutes of weightlessness that will launch from Spaceport America,
New Mexico. Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company believe that
one of the most exciting and significant opportunities of our time
lies in the commercial exploration of space and the development of
technology that will change the way we travel across the globe in
the future. Together we are opening access to space to change the
world for good.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward-looking
statements are predictions, projections and other statements about
future events that are based on current expectations and
assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and
uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to
differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this
communication. You should carefully consider the risks and
uncertainties described in the “Risk Factors” section of the
registration statement on Form S-4 filed in connection with the
Business Combination and other documents filed by Virgin Galactic
from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address
other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
events and results to differ materially from those contained in the
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only
as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put
undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
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