Virgin Galactic Hits Milestone As Commercial Space Travel Rockets Toward Reality

NASA may not be sending anyone to Mars anytime soon, the exploration of space and beyond - though on a much smaller scale - is being spearheaded by folks like Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. (Maybe you've heard of them.) Though Bezos and Blue Origin continue to work under a veil of secrecy in Texas, Virgin Galactic keeps humming along in the Mojave having recently scored a major milestone for the sub-orbital space tourism arm of Branson's Virgin empire. Earlier this month Virgin Galactic and its partner Scaled Composites received an experimental launch permit from the Federal Aviation Administration, the first for a manned experimental aircraft. Considering there have been numerous test flights of both the mother ship (WhiteKnightTwo) and spacecraft (SpaceShipTwo) since 2009, I asked Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides what comes next.

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