Virgin Galactic is preparing its SpaceShipTwo spaceplane for the resumption of flights. To this end, it optimizes the management. But it is not reported on what schedule the preparatory work will be carried out.
Leadership Change at Virgin Galactic
SpaceShipTwo spaceplane may begin commercial suborbital flights after some time. At least, this is stated by the company that built it, Virgin Galactic. In preparation for it, they began to optimize their management structure.
Commercial activity should begin this year. On January 12, the company announced that in this regard, Swami Iyer was leaving the post of president of Aerospace Systems, but would remain an adviser until March 3. The former test pilot held this post since 2021 and was responsible for the construction of aircraft.
Mike Moses will become President of Space Missions and Security. He has been working in various positions at Virgin Galactic since 2011, supervising flights and missions. Mike Moore, who joined the team in 2022, will be vice president of technical operations in flight. And Steve Jarvis, who previously worked at Lockheed Martin, will become senior vice president of aerospace Programs and engineering.
Plans to resume flights
All this was happening almost 18 months after the owner of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, made an 80 km high suborbital flight aboard the Unity shuttle. After that, the company announced that both the device itself and its carrier Virgin Galactic would switch to a long period of space maintenance, which would last until 2022.
After that, the company has already made statements about the start of commercial activity, but it has not started. They have now announced that the first commercial flight will take place in the second quarter of 2023.
The carrier aircraft, which has its own name VMS Eve, has already passed all technical procedures and is waiting for flights at the Virgin Galactic facility in the Mojave Desert. Ground tests are due to begin next week.
After that, flights will begin and Unity will be installed on the carrier and the final stage will begin, which will contain suborbital flights. However, the specific schedule according to which all this will happen remains unknown.
According to spacenews.com
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