Virgin Galactic

After many years of delays, Virgin Galactic has carried its first tourist passengers to the edge of space, including British former Olympiad Jon Goodwin, and Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, a mother and daughter from Antigua and Barbuda.

After years of setbacks, Virgin Galactic has completed its first commercial flight, which saw it carry 13 research payloads and three passengers from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council of Italy to the edge of space.

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson almost, but not quite, flew into space today as a passenger aboard the privately built and operated Virgin Galactic spaceplane, VSS Unity, which took off from Spaceport America, New Mexico at about 10:30 am EDT.

Virgin Galactic has made history, becoming the first spaceliner to be certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration to carry passengers on its spaceplanes. The approval comes as the company prepares for its first fully crewed test flight.

Virgin Galactic has wheeled out the next-generation version of the vehicle designed to carry human tourists into space, showing off a shimmering, mirror-like spaceship named the VSS Imagine that features a modular design.

The US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has released new regulations streamlining the path to supersonic flight testing over US soil, giving a new generation of super-fast aircraft a chance to prove their "boomless cruise" capabilities over land.

A serious-looking consortium of businesses is trying to position Japan as the first Asian space tourism hub, by proposing a futuristic, floating "Spaceport Japan" from which services like Virgin Galactic can operate their sub-orbital joyrides.

Virgin Galactic has taken the wraps off a new commercial jet concept that would fly at three times the speed of sound. The company has enlisted Rolls-Royce to design and develop the engine to power the delta-wing aircraft.

Virgin Galactic has become the first passenger-carrying spaceflight company to be publicly traded. Shares of new Virgin Galactic Holdings company were bought and sold on the New York Stock exchange on October 28, 2019, under the stock ticker SPCE.

Virgin Galactic has unveiled its new line of "spacewear" to be worn by the company's first commercial astronauts at a New York catwalk event where Sir Richard Branson sported the outfit he will wear for the company's inaugural commercial spaceflight.

​Virgin Galactic has shown the first firing of its spaceplane’s chemical rocket engine was no fluke, following last month’s effort with another successful outing In California. The latest test flight takes the tourist-carrying space vehicle a little closer to space, literally and figuratively.

​​The year just gone was a momentous one for furthering our understanding of the universe. All things going to plan, 2018 will also bring some landmark moments in space, beginning with the biggest bang the industry has seen in nearly half a century.