Nascent commercial spaceflight group Virgin Galactic has assumed full ownership of its spaceship manufacturing joint venture after acquiring a further 30% in the unit.
Virgin Galactic announced it had snapped up the remaining share of the group, called…
Nascent commercial spaceflight group Virgin Galactic has assumed full ownership of its spaceship manufacturing joint venture after acquiring a further 30% in the unit.
Virgin Galactic announced it had snapped up the remaining share of the group, called The Spaceship Company (TCS), by buying out co-founder Scaled Composites for an undisclosed sum.
In an email to SatelliteFinance, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said the transaction was a long-standing mutually agreed strategy that it had always planned to implement at the right time in its development programme.
The deal marks the end of the first phase of TCS’s development. This stage saw the unit establish a specialised workforce, and set up facilities for the production of the WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft and SpaceShipTwo (SS2) orbital spacecraft.
The group plans to use these two vehicles in harmony to offer tourists and researchers suborbital spaceflights for US$200,000 a ticket.
Scaled, which is owned by aerospace and security giant Northrop Grumman, will continue to assist Virgin Galactic in testing the WK2 and SS2 flight programmes prior to commercial launch.
Whitesides declined to discuss the terms of its takeover, describing TCS as “still largely in a start-up phase”, but said the unit currently has 128 employees.
He said Virgin Galactic provided the funding to set up TSC, with Scaled providing IP, technical expertise and some physical assets.
Virgin Galactic itself is 38% owned by Abu Dhabi-based investment firm Aabar, with the remainder held by the UK’s Virgin Group conglomerate.
Aabar acquired an initial 32% stake in Virgin Galactic for US$280m back in 2010. Whitesides revealed that Aabar bought a further 6% stake in 2011 after investing another US$100m, enabling Virgin Galactic to develop a small satellite launch capability. This capability was unveiled at the Farnborough Air Show in July this year. Other manufacturers building small satellite launch vehicles include Lockheed Martin and Boeing of the US.
Whitesides said: “Aabar remains an enthusiastic and valued partner; its financial support has ensured that Virgin Galactic remains well funded for the foreseeable future, ensuring that we can complete the remainder of the development programme thoroughly and safely and move into commercial operations firing on all cylinders.”
Virgin Galactic declined to comment on when it would launch commercially, but reports have suggested it could be providing flights as early as next year.
