[10][11] In February 2019, the project carried three people, including a passenger, on VSS Unity VF-01, with a member of the team floating within the cabin during a spaceflight that reached 89.9 kilometres (55.9 mi).

[20] Scaled Composites was contracted to develop and build the initial prototypes of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, and then TSC began production of the follow-on vehicles beginning in 2008.

[24] In July 2011, Aabar invested a further US$110 million to develop a program to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit, raising their equity share to 37.8%.

[26] The New Mexico government has invested approximately $200m (£121m) in the Spaceport America facility, for which Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant; other commercial space companies also use the site.

The prize was won on 4 October 2004, the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch, by the Tier One project designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, using the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne.

Carried to about 16 kilometers, or 52,000 ft, underneath a carrier aircraft, White Knight Two, after separation the vehicle was to continue to over 100 km (the Kármán line, a common definition of where "space" begins).

[36] The credibility of the earlier promises of launch dates by Virgin Galactic were brought into question in October 2014 by its chief executive, George T. Whitesides, when he told The Guardian: "We've changed dramatically as a company.

On 14 May 2013, Richard Branson stated on Virgin Radio Dubai's Kris Fade Morning Show that he would be aboard the first public flight of SpaceShipTwo, which had again been rescheduled, this time to 25 December 2013.

[45] In February 2014, cracks in WhiteKnightTwo, where the spars connect with the fuselage, were discovered during an inspection conducted after Virgin Galactic took possession of the aircraft from builder Scaled Composites.

[46] In September 2014, Richard Branson described the intended date for the first commercial flight as February or March 2015; by the time of this announcement, a new plastic-based fuel had yet to be ignited in-flight.

Following the announcement of further delays, UK newspaper The Sunday Times reported that Branson faced a backlash from those who had booked flights with Virgin Galactic, with the company having received $80 million in fares and deposits.

"[50] At 10:51 PST 31 October 2014, the fourth rocket-powered test flight of the company's first SpaceShipTwo craft, VSS Enterprise, ended in disaster, as it broke apart in mid-air, with the debris falling into the Mojave desert in California, shortly after being released from the mothership.

Telemetry data and cockpit video showed that instead, the air braking system appeared to have deployed incorrectly and too early, for unknown reasons, and that the craft had violently broken apart in mid-air seconds later.

[54] In November 2014, Branson and Virgin Galactic came under criticism for their attempts to distance the company from the disaster by referring to the test pilots as Scaled Composites employees.

[55][57][58] The BBC's David Shukman commented that: "Even as details emerge of what went wrong, this is clearly a massive setback to a company hoping to pioneer a new industry of space tourism.

[50][59] At a hearing in Washington D.C. on 28 July 2015,[60][61] and a press release on the same day[62] the NTSB cited inadequate design safeguards, poor pilot training, lack of rigorous FAA oversight and a potentially anxious co-pilot without recent flight experience as important factors in the 2014 crash.

But the Board also found that the Scaled Composites unit of Northrop Grumman, which designed and flew the prototype space tourism vehicle, did not properly prepare for potential human slip-ups by providing a fail-safe system that could have guarded against such premature deployment.

"[62] In its submission to the NTSB, Virgin Galactic reported that the second SS2, at the time nearing completion, had been modified with an automatic mechanical inhibit device to prevent locking or unlocking of the feather during safety-critical phases.

Due to a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic had to postpone a key test flight of its spacecraft in November 2020,[75] and then in December 2020, a computer connection issue prevented engine ignition.

The VSS Unity was carried to 44,000 feet by the jet powered launch aircraft Mothership Eve, where it was released to reach its suborbital altitude over New Mexico.

[78] A fully crewed test flight took place on 11 July 2021 with two pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci and the four passengers were Richard Branson, Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla.

The FAA grounded Virgin Galactic's space planes before allowing a resumption of flights after some changes to procedures including reserving a larger volume of airspace.

[80] On 14 October 2021, Virgin Galactic announced that an upgrade program for Unity and Eve would begin, delaying future commercial flights to mid 2022.

Sources:[87][88][89][90] In February 2007, Virgin announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA to explore the potential for collaboration,[140][141] but this produced only a relatively small contract in 2011 of up to $4.5 million for research flights.

It was said that the base layer would enhance performance and blood flow during the high and zero G portions of flight and the liner of the spacesuit was made of new fabrics such as Tencel Luxe, SpinIt and Nomex, used for temperature control and moisture management.

[167] The programme was delayed after three Scaled Composites employees – Todd Ivens, Eric Blackwell and Charles May – were killed in an accident in Mojave on 26 July 2007, where the detonation of a tank of nitrous oxide destroyed a test stand.

The Wall Street Journal reported in November 2014 that there has been "tension between Mr. Branson's upbeat projections and the persistent hurdles that challenged the company's hundreds of technical experts.

[181][needs update] An international architectural competition for the design of Virgin Galactic's operating base, Spaceport America in New Mexico, saw the contract awarded to URS and Foster + Partners architects.

In October 2010, the 3,000 m (10,000 ft) runway at Spaceport America was opened, with SpaceShipTwo "VSS Enterprise" shipped to the site carried underneath the fuselage of Virgin Galactic's mothership Eve.

This suborbital flight was accomplished using the twin-fuselage aircraft launch platform VMS Eve, coupled together with VSS Unity, enabling Branson, three other employee passengers and the two pilots to experience approximately three minutes of weightlessness above Earth's atmosphere.