Virgin America News

Richard Branson Unveils Virgin Galactic's Space Tourism Mothership

Posted July 29, 2008 by Zak Patten

As White Knight Two approaches an altitude of 50,000 feet, you brace yourself. The aircraft that's carried your rocket this far has done its job and must return to the desert runway far below. Seconds later, you're pinned to your seat as SpaceShipTwo's hybrid rocket sends you hurtling into the unknown darkness. Despite g-force three times that of Earth's gravity, you look into the eyes of your fellow passengers and smile knowingly. Within minutes, you've reached the internationally recognized edge of space, 62 miles above the Earth's surface. You are now officially an astronaut.

If you find this fantasy scenario appealing, and happen to have a spare $200,000, Sir Richard Branson would like to make you a space tourist. Branson, the celebrity billionaire head of the Virgin empire (featuring Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America), yesterday unveiled White Knight Two, the latest addition to Virgin Galactic. Though it's only partially complete and no firm date has been set for the first real trip, this plane promises to make space travel a reality for those who have the means and desire.

When that event does take place, the six passengers and two pilots (presumably there won't be a flight attendant handing out drinks) will spend two and a half hours getting from the ground to space and back again. Unfortunately, there won't be a full orbit of the planet on the first flights Virgin Galactic offers, but it still beats that turbulent Newark-Cleveland flight you took last year, doesn't it?

Richard Branson's plans for the "airline" are characteristically ambitious. He wants to get at least 500 people into space in the first year. This would rake in a tidy $100 million in fares, not to mention equal the number of people who have reached such heights in the entire history of space exploration. To date, 250 people have put at least some money down for their tickets, so he’s halfway there already.

Speaking personally, I don't have the credit card limit for such a pricey trip and I'm not typically the bravest of souls, but I would absolutely jump at the chance to travel into space. Would you? Leave a comment below and let me know.

(Photo: Virgin Galactic)

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n00b Airline Virgin America pwnz Gamers’ Hearts

Posted March 14, 2008 by Stephen Lin

(If you have no earthly idea what the title of this post means, you probably aren't fluent in 1337, or Leetspeak, the language of online gamers.)

Anyone remember Delta Air Lines’ short-lived low-cost carrier Song and the joy of playing trivia games against other passengers?  Well, video game enthusiasts can rejoice as there’s a (semi) new kid on the block who may be able to fill the cavernous void in their nerdy hearts.  Nikole of GameGirl.com wants to declare Virgin America “the [un]official airline of gamers”.

It seems there’s something for everyone.  For example, the Oprah-watching stay-at-home mom might enjoy a nice game of Mahjong.¹   The 20-something comic-book-reading virgin living in said mom’s basement might like the classic first-person shooter DOOM.²    And perhaps the hot sister of said virgin might want to try something more mentally stimulating, say a clone of Bejeweled.³

While Virgin gains popularity (they only had 2.7 percent of all pull-down airline searches on BookingBuddy in February), we suspect other airlines will follow suit.  We just can’t wait to see the chaos when someone ups the ante and puts the Nintendo Wii at the disposal of every passenger.  Hmm … maybe just first-class passengers.

^[1] Okay, we don’t know that stay-at-home moms are gamers, but eMarketer indicated that Internet users who visit travel sites skew female and over 25.

^[2] We also don’t know that virgins prefer flying on Virgin, but Occasional Superheroine Valerie D’Orazio reports that the average mainstream comic book reader is a 20-to-25-year-old video-game-playing single male with disposable income.   And while disposable income is a must in many cases for travel, we don’t know that comic book readers really live in their mothers’ basements.

^[3] There’s also no evidence that the hypothetical virgin’s sister is hot, but Entertainment Software Association claims that 30 percent of all gamers are women age 18 or older.

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