Comments on: Virgin Galactic wants to borrow $500 million from investors to stay afloat

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 00:11:14 +0000

Of more interest to me is the Italian SIMONA concept where they want to retrofit an aircraft carrier as a Sea Launch deal. No Truax deal…but this could both launch, catch-and perhaps refurbish rockets at sea? I think there will be 14 more Protons…and also from NSF..the Hwasong 8 has a 3000 km range…busy times space wise.

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 16:48:30 +0000

Thank you BtB’s Original Mark for the info on the book. I will grab a copy of it.

As for V.G. asking for $500M, why throw good money after bad? Would Branson give a loan to his own company? I think not.

By: BtB’s Original Mark

BtB’s Original Mark — Fri, 14 Jan 2022 16:11:56 +0000

Has anyone here on BtB read the recent book ‘Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut’.
I remember reading someplace about how Mark Stucky, a flight-test legend, warned about protecting the integrity of the flight-test program.
Here is a portion of the book description:
“Working from exclusive inside reporting, New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle tells the remarkable story of the test pilots, engineers, and visionaries behind Virgin Galactic’s campaign to build a space tourism company. Schmidle follows a handful of characters―Mark Stucky, Virgin’s lead test pilot; Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire funding the venture; Mike Moses, the grounded, unflappable president; Mike Alsbury, the test pilot killed in a fatal crash; and others―through personal and professional dramas, in pursuit of their collective goal: to make space tourism a reality.”