Orlando Sentinel: Virgin Galactic CEO comes to UCF

Human space flights will now be a routine rather than a rarity. This is one goal a privately owned company has for its customers. So far more than 400 people have placed a down payment on making their dream a reality. The next potential flier could be you.

The CEO and president of Virgin Galactic, George Whitesides, spoke about this very topic at UCF Feb. 28 as part of the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference.

Virgin Galactic, the world’s first commercial spaceline, is a company within Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. The company plans to provide suborbital spaceflights along with suborbital space science missions open to the public. Virgin Galactic announced Feb. 28 that a contract has been signed with the Southwest Research Institute to fly scientists into space to conduct microgravity, biology, climate and astronomy research.

“April 6 marks 50 years that people have been exploring space,” Whitesides said. “But over the course of that time only about 500 people have been able to actually travel into space.”

Read the entire story from the Orlando Sentinel here.