- General
- July 7, 2018
- 4 minutes read
Spaceflight company Virgin Galactic plans to launch flights from Italian Spaceport
image credit : Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic, The notable and very popular U.S. based spaceflight company founded by entrepreneur and…
image credit : Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic, The notable and very popular U.S. based spaceflight company founded by entrepreneur and Billionaire Virgin Group founder Richard Branson along with renowned space engineer Burt Rutan has now reached an agreement with Italian major Aerospace companies Altaec and Sitael to develop and work on future space ports which Virgin Galactic will make use of to launch several of its flights for its customers.
The deal which was recently signed at Sitael’s Italian headquarters represents a Memorandum of Understanding between the involved parties and Virgin Galactic which will see Galactic provide Technical assistance for the development and construction of a Spaceport in the country which will serve as a base for the company to launch its sub-orbital flights.
With the Aerospace industry being a highly demanding and innovative one, It makes sense that Virgin Galactic is seeking new ways of expanding its operations for the company which currently operates one type of space vehicle, A suborbital rocket-powered manned spaceplane dubbed the “VSS Unity” which the company first flew September 2016 and has since undergone several test flights in full preparation of being able to shuttle human tourists to space as soon as possible.
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| Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson (4th from right) along with other executives from the involved Aerospace companies |
image credit : SITAEL
Before this, Galactic previously operated the VSS Enterprise which encountered various issues and unfortunately crashed during one of its test flights October 2014 which saw the spaceplane retired after several test flights.
The VSS Unity has gone through two powered flights in test and preparation for transporting its customers who have put down deposits of $250,000 for tickets to gain the experience of touring space for a while before safely landing down back to Earth as its is in the case of normal airplanes.
With what represents a very crucial partnership for the Italian Aerospace industry which might probably launch the first person into space from Italian soil, We would now get to see what this partnership would make for both companies as they incline towards delivering safe and innovative space travel to global citizens.
