The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and spaceflight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. Almost all space and aircraft on display are originals or backups to the originals. It is the second-most popular of the Smithsonian museums and operates an annex, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, at Dulles International Airport. The museum currently conducts restoration of its collection at the Paul E. Garber Preservation, Restoration, and Storage Facility in Suitland, Maryland. Because of the museum's close proximity to the United States Capitol, the Smithsonian wanted a building that would be architecturally impressive but would not stand out too boldly against the Capitol building. St. Louis-based architect Gyo Obataof Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum designed the museum as four simple marble-encased cubes containing the smaller and more theatrical exhibits, connected by three spacious steel-and-glass atria which house the larger exhibits such as missiles, airplanes and spacecraft. The mass of the museum is similar to the National Gallery of Art across the National Mall, and uses the same pink Tennessee marble as the National Gallery. The west glass wall of the building is used for the installation of airplanes, functioning as a giant door. The museum will receive several artifacts, including a former camera, that were removed from the Hubble Space Telescope and returned to Earth after Space Shuttle mission STS-125. The museum also holds the backup mirror for the Hubble which, unlike the one that was launched, was ground to the correct shape. There were once plans for it to be installed to the Hubble itself, but plans to return it to Earth were scrapped after the in 2003; the mission was re-considered as too risky. The Smithsonian has also been promised the International Cometary Explorer, which is currently in a solar orbit that occasionally brings it back to Earth, should NASA attempt to recover it.

The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is the visitor center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It features exhibits and displays, historic spacecraft and memorabilia, shows, two IMAX theaters, a range of bus tours of the spaceport, and the Shuttle Launch Experience, a simulated ride into space. It also encompasses the separate Apollo/Saturn V Center and United States Astronaut Hall of Fame. There were 1.5 million visitors in 2009 and it had some 700 employees. Base admission for people over age 12 is US$41. Included in the base admission is tour-bus transportation to the Apollo/Saturn V Center and an observation platform at Launch Complex 39, which provides unobstructed views of both launch pads and the surrounding KSC property. It also includes admission to the Astronaut Hall of Fame, 6 miles (9.7 km) to the west. The Apollo/Saturn V Center, located 6 miles (9.7 km) north, is a large museum built around its centerpiece exhibit, a restored Saturn V launch vehicle, and features other space related exhibits, including an Apollo capsule. Two theaters allow the visitor to relive parts of the Apollo program. One simulates the environment inside an Apollo firing room during an Apollo launch, and another simulates the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The tour also includes the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) where modules for the International Space Station were tested. The Visitor Complex includes two facilities run by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation. The most visible of these is the Space Mirror Memorial, also known as the Astronaut Memorial, a huge black granite mirror through-engraved with the names of all astronauts who died in the line of duty. Elsewhere on the Visitor Complex grounds is the foundation's Center for Space Education, which includes a resource center for teachers, among other facilities; and the Kurt Debus Conference Center. The Debus Center houses several displays of artifacts, among them is the Gemini 9A spacecraft; as well as a recreation of the Mercury Control Center using consoles and furniture relocated from the original building at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The building, which was on the National Register of Historic Places, was demolished in May 2010 due to concerns about asbestos and the estimated $5-million cost to renovate the building after 40 years of exposure to salt air. A rocket garden between the building which houses the Visitor Complex entrance and the Debus Center features eight milestone launch vehicles from KSC's history. The Mercury-Redstone, Mercury-Atlas, and Titan II rockets launched astronauts and theJuno I, Juno II, Thor-Delta, and Atlas-Agena rockets launched satellites from Cape Canaveral. These are mounted upright whereas the largest rocket, a Saturn IB, is mounted on its side. Saturn IB rockets launched Apollo Command/Service Modules into Earth orbit for Apollo, Skylab, and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project. The Juno I on display is painted with serial number "UE" like the one that launched the first US satellite, Explorer I. A Juno II launched the first American probe to escape Earth's gravity and fly past the Moon. Atlas-Agena rockets launched early probes to the Moon, Venus, and Mars, as well as the Agena target vehicles used in rendezvous and docking by Gemini spacecraft—a necessary technique for the following Apollo missions. The Thor-Delta was one of the most reliable and frequently-used launch vehicles. The Titan II on display is a refurbished Air Force ICBM with a replica Gemini spacecraft, painted to resemble the Gemini 3 booster. It was rescued from the Arizona Boneyard and erected in 2010 to replace a deteriorating mockup composed of two first stages which had been on display for more than 20 years. The Saturn IB on display is SA-209 which was designated for a possible Skylab Rescue mission. The garden also features mock-ups of capsules from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs that visitors can get in, and the walkway and white room that Apollo astronauts used to access their capsules from the launch tower of LC-39A. Attached to the white room is a Command Module trainer. A F-1 rocket engine that powered the first stage of the Saturn V is also on display. Free guided tours of the garden are available daily.

Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located approximately 43 miles (69 km) east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States. Because the US Department of the Interior Division of Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of "Meteor Crater" from the nearby post office named Meteor. The site was formerly known as the Canyon Diablo Crater, and fragments of the meteorite are officially called the Canyon Diablo Meteorite. Scientists refer to the crater as Barringer Crater in honor of Daniel Barringer who was first to suggest that it was produced by meteorite impact. The crater is privately owned by the Barringer family through their Barringer Crater Company, which proclaims it to be "the first proven, best-preserved meteorite crater on earth." Despite its importance as a geological site, the crater is not protected as a national monument, a status that would require federal ownership. It was designated a National Natural Landmark in November 1967. Meteor Crater lies at an elevation of about 1,740 m (5,709 ft) above sea level. It is about 1,200 m (4,000 ft) in diameter, some 170 m deep (570 ft), and is surrounded by a rim that rises 45 m (150 ft) above the surrounding plains. The center of the crater is filled with 210–240 m (700–800 ft) of rubble lying above crater bedrock. One of the interesting features of the crater is its squared-off outline, believed to be caused by pre-existing regional jointing (cracks) in the strata at the impact site. Scientists now believe that most of the meteorite vaporized on impact. Small meteoritic fragments have been found scattered around the crater. One of the largest pieces is in the visitor center, available all to touch! There are several paved paths and viewing platforms along the rim of the crater, but due to erosion and slope instability, the public is not permitted to climb to the bottom.

The Observatories at Mauna Kea (MKO) are an independent collection of astronomical research facilities located on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawai'i, USA. The facilities are located in a 500-acre (2.0 km2) special land use zone known as the "Astronomy Precinct," which is located in the Mauna Kea Science Reserve. The Astronomy Precinct was established in 1967 and is located on land protected by the Historical Preservation Act for its significance to Hawaiian culture. The location is ideal because of its dark skies, good astronomical seeing, low humidity and position above most of the water vapor in the atmosphere, clean air, good weather and almost equatorial location. Telescopes found at the summit of Mauna Kea are funded by government agencies of various nations. The University of Hawai'i itself directly administers two telescopes. In total there are 12 telescopes at or around the summit of Mauna Kea. It will also be the site of the Thirty Meter Telescope and is a proposed site for Pan-STARRS. Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO): Caltech Canada France Hawai'i Telescope (CFHT): Canada, France, University of Hawai'i Gemini North Telescope: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Chile, Australia, Argentina, Brazil Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF): NASA James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT): United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands Subaru Telescope: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Sub-Millimeter Array (SMA): Taiwan, United States United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT): United Kingdom University of Hawai'i 88-inch (2.2 m) telescope (UH88): University of Hawai'i University of Hawai'i 24-inch (610 mm) telescope (UH24): University of Hawaii at Hilo One receiver of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA): United States W. M. Keck Observatory: California Association for Research in Astronomy The Onizuka Center for International Astronomy, also known as Hale Pōhaku, is a complex of support facilities for the telescopes and other instruments that comprise the Mauna Kea Observatory atop Mauna Kea, on Hawaiʻi island. Just below the support complex, a Visitor Information Station with its own parking lot for visitors. The VIS houses informational displays, and shows videos depicting the history and work of the observatory. Every evening it hosts a stargazing program in which a small telescope is set up outside the building and visitors are shown various stars, planets and other interesting features of the night sky. Amateur astronomers also come here to set up their own telescopes, since the altitude is already high enough for the seeing to be much better than lower down the mountain. The Onizuka Center is at the end of the paved road, and the farthest a regular car can go towards the summit. As of 2010, four wheel drive vehicles with well-maintained brakes are required to continue on the steep and twisting gravel road to the summit. Since conditions can change quickly, visitors are advised to get up-to-date information before going. Those who do intend to visit the summit are also strongly advised to spend at least half an hour, or better three or four hours, at the mid-level in order to acclimatize to the higher elevation, and so reduce the possibility of suffering potentially dangerous altitude sickness. Further below the visitor station is a camp for construction workers. The three facilities are kept separate because scientists generally work at the summit during night hours and need to sleep during the day, while construction and tours are restricted to daylight hours. The Keck Observatory on the summit is sometimes open for visitors during daylight hours, but otherwise only scientists are allowed inside observatory facilities. Some commercial tours continue from the center to the summit until it is closed to the public at sunset. Other Mauna Kea recreation opportunities include Mauna Kea State Recreation Area, and the Mauna Kea Trail which leads from the VIS through the Mauna Kea Ice Age Reserve to the summit. A small museum also dedicated to Onizuka is located at the Kona International Airport. The ʻImiloa Astronomy Center of Hawaii in Hilo on the University of Hawaii at Hilo campus includes a larger museum and planetarium that is more easily accessible to visitors.

Space Center Houston is the official visitors' center of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) center for human spaceflight activities—located in Houston. The facility is operated by the non profit Manned Spaceflight Educational Foundation Incorporated with design input from Walt Disney Imagineering. Space Center Houston is home to space artifacts and hardware including: Mercury 9 capsule (Faith 7) Gemini 5 capsule Apollo 17 command module Lunar Rover Vehicle trainer Skylab trainer mock-up Lunar Module Test Article 8 Saturn V These artifacts (except Skylab) were formerly housed in the Johnson Space Center's Visitor Center in Building 2. A restored Saturn V, on loan from the Smithsonian, is on display after it sat exposed to outdoor elements from 1977 through 2004, leading to exterior weather damage and plants, molds, and small animals inside the rocket. In 2004 the Smithsonian took over and began efforts to restore the vehicle through a grant from the National Park Service's Save America's Treasures program and the National Trust for Historic Preservation along with private contributions. Other attractions include: Martian Matrix/Kid's Space Place, a play place for children 5th grade and younger Northrop Grumman Theater, a large format theater that shows the movies To Be An Astronaut and Inside the Space Station A tram tour of JSC, which goes to Building 30 North and South (old and new Mission Control Centers), Building 9 (the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility), and a Rocket Park, including a restored Saturn V. It is made up of first stage from SA-514, the second stage from SA-515 and the third stage from SA-513, which was unneeded after it was replaced by the Skylab workshop. Special tours, called Level 9 tours, given at an extra cost, visit all of the above buildings and other areas such as the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. The lectern from which President John F. Kennedy promised a manned Moon landing before 1970 at Rice Stadium is located inside the Destiny Theater. Destiny Theater, which shows a short historical film. Starship Gallery, which is a museum area that houses space related artifacts, including moon rocks, space capsules, and a full scale Skylab mockup.

Virgin Galactic is a British spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and suborbital launches for space science missions. Virgin Galactic plans to provide orbital human spaceflights as well. SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft, is air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic's founder, Richard Branson, had initially suggested that he hoped to see a maiden flight by the end of 2009, but this date has been delayed on a number of occasions, most seriously by the October 2014 in-flight loss of SpaceShipTwo VSSEnterprise. Branson stated that Virgin Galactic was “in the best position in the world” to provide rocket-powered, point-to-point 3000 mph air travel on Earth. While Branson suggested, in October 2017, that he could travel to space aboard a SpaceShipTwo within six months, it was not until 13 December 2018 that VSS Unity achieved the project's first suborbital space flight, reaching an altitude of 82.7 kilometres (51.4 mi), officially entering outer space by US standards. The project did not carry a third person as a passenger until February 2019, when a member of the team sat in a flight that reached 89.9 kilometres (55.9 mi). Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, who had previously founded Virgin Atlantic airline and the Virgin Group, and who had a long personal history of balloon and surface record-breaking activities. As part of Branson's promotion of the firm, he has added a variation of the Virgin Galactic livery to his personal business jet, the Dassault Falcon 900EX "Galactic girl" (G-GALX). The Spaceship Company (TSC) was founded by Richard Branson through Virgin Group (which owned 70%), and Burt Rutan through Scaled Composites (which owned 30%), to build commercial spaceships and launch aircraft for space travel. From the time of TSC's formation in 2005, the launch customer was Virgin Galactic, which contracted to purchase five SpaceShipTwos and two WhiteKnightTwos; Scaled Composites was contracted to develop and build the initial prototypes of WK2 and SS2, and then TSC began production of the follow-on vehicles beginning in 2008. By July 2014, TSC was only halfway through the completion of a second SpaceShipTwo, and had commenced construction of a second WhiteKnightTwo. In July 2008, Richard Branson predicted the maiden space voyage would take place within 18 months. In October 2009, Virgin Galactic announced that initial flights would take place from Spaceport America "within two years." Later that year, Scaled Composite announced that White Knight Two's first SpaceShipTwo captive flights would be in early 2010. Both aircraft did fly together in March 2010. The credibility of the earlier promises of launch dates by Virgin Galactic were brought into question in October 2014 by its chief executive, George Whitesides, when he toldThe Guardian: “We’ve changed dramatically as a company. When I joined in 2010 we were mostly a marketing organisation. Right now we can design, build, test and fly a rocket motor all by ourselves and all in Mojave, which I don’t think is done anywhere else on the planet”. On December 7, 2009, SpaceShipTwo was unveiled at the Mojave Spaceport. Branson told the 300 people attending, each of whom had booked rides at $200,000 each, that flights would begin “in 2011”. However, in April 2011, Branson announced further delays, saying “I hope 18 months from now, we’ll be sitting in our spaceship and heading off into space”. By February 2012, SpaceShipTwo had completed 15 test flights attached to White Knight Two, and an additional 16 glide tests, the last of which took place in September 2011. A rocket-powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo took place on April 29, 2013, with an engine burn of 16 seconds duration. The brief flight began at an altitude of 47,000 feet, and reached a maximum altitude of 55,000 feet. While the SS2 achieved a speed of Mach 1.2 (920 mph), this was less than half the 2,000 mph speed predicted by Richard Branson. SpaceShipTwo's second supersonic flight achieved a speed of 1,100 mph for 20 seconds; while this was an improvement, it fell far short of the 2,500 mph for 70 seconds required to carry six passengers into space. However, Branson still announced his spaceship would be capable of "launching 100 satellites every day". On May 14, 2013, Richard Branson stated on Virgin Radio Dubai's Kris Fade Morning Show that he would be aboard the first public flight of SpaceShipTwo, which had again been rescheduled, this time to December 25, 2013. "Maybe I’ll dress up as Father Christmas", Branson said. The third rocket-powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo took place on January 10, 2014 and successfully tested the spaceship's Reaction Control System (RCS) and the newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicle's tail booms. Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said “We are progressively closer to our target of starting commercial service in 2014". Interviewed byThe Observerat the time of her 90th birthday in July 2014, Branson's mother, Eve, told reporter Elizabeth Day of her intention of going to space herself. Asked when that might be, she replied: “I think it’s the end of the year”, adding after a pause, “It’s always ‘the end of the year’ ”. In September 2014, Richard Branson described the intended date for the first commercial flight as February or March of 2015; by the time of this announcement, a new plastic-based fuel had yet to be ignited in-flight. By September of 2014, the three test flights of the SS2 had only reached an altitude of around 71,000 ft, approximately 13 miles; in order to receive a Federal Aviation Administration licence to carry passengers, the craft needs to complete test missions at full speed and 62-mile height. Following the announcement of further delays, UK newspaperThe Sunday Timesreported that Branson faced a backlash from those who had booked flights with Virgin Galactic, with the company having received $80 million in fares and deposits. Tom Bower, author ofBranson: The Man behind the Mask, told theSunday Times: "They spent 10 years trying to perfect one engine and failed. They are now trying to use a different engine and get into space in six months. It's just not feasible." BBC science editor David Shukman commented in October 2014, that "[Branson's] enthusiasm and determination [are] undoubted. But his most recent promises of launching the first passenger trip by the end of this year had already started to look unrealistic some months ago.” At 10.51am PST 31 October 2014, the fourth rocket-powered test flight of one of the company's SpaceShipTwo craft,VSS Enterprise, ended in disaster, as it broke apart in midair, with the debris falling into the Mojave desert in California, shortly after being released from the mothership. Initial reports attributed the loss to an as-yet unidentified "in-flight anomaly". The flight was the first test of SpaceShipTwo with new plastic-based fuel, replacing the original—a rubber-based solid fuel that had not met expectations. 39-year-old co-pilot Michael Alsbury was killed and 43-year-old pilot Peter Siebold was seriously injured. Investigation and media comment[edit] Initial investigations found that the engine and propellant tanks were intact, showing that there had not been a fuel explosion. Telemetry data and cockpit video showed that instead, the air braking system appeared to have deployed incorrectly and too early, for unknown reasons, and that the craft had violently broken apart in midair seconds later. U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart said on 2 November 2014 that investigators had determined SpaceShipTwo's tail system was supposed to have been released for deployment as the craft was traveling about 1.4 times the speed of sound; instead, the tail section began pivoting when the vehicle was flying at Mach 1. "I'm not stating that this is the cause of the mishap. We have months and months of investigation to determine what the cause was." Asked if pilot error was a possible factor, Hart said: "We are looking at all of these issues to determine what was the root cause of this mishap." He noted that it was also unclear how the tail mechanism began to rotate once it was unlocked, since that maneuver requires a separate pilot command that was never given, and whether the craft's position in the air and its speed somehow enabled the tail section to swing free on its own. In November 2014, Branson and Virgin Galactic came under criticism for their attempts to distance the company from the disaster by referring to the test pilots as Scaled Composites employees. Virgin Galactic's official statement on 31 October 2014 said: “Virgin Galactic’s partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo earlier today. [...] Local authorities have confirmed that one of the two Scaled Composites pilots died during the accident”. This was in strong contrast to public communications previously released concerning the group's successful flights, which had routinely presented pilots, craft, and projects within the same organizational structures, as being "Virgin Galactic" flights or activities of "the Galactic team". The BBC's David Shukman commented that: “Even as details emerge of what went wrong, this is clearly a massive setback to a company hoping to pioneer a new industry of space tourism. Confidence is everything and this will not encourage the long list of celebrity and millionaire customers waiting for their first flight". At a hearing in Washington D.C. on 28 July 2015, and a press release on the same day the NTSB cited inadequate design safeguards, poor pilot training, lack of rigorous FAA oversight and a potentially anxious co-pilot without recent flight experience as important factors in the 2014 crash. They determined that the co-pilot, who died in the accident, prematurely unlocked a movable tail section some ten seconds after SpaceShip Two fired its rocket engine and was breaking the sound barrier, resulting in the craft's breaking apart. But the Board also found that the Scaled Composites unit of Northrop Grumman, which designed and flew the prototype space tourism vehicle, did not properly prepare for potential human slip-ups by providing a fail-safe system that could have guarded against such premature deployment. “A single-point human failure has to be anticipated,” board member Robert Sumwalt said. Instead, Scaled Composites “put all their eggs in the basket of the pilots doing it correctly.” NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart emphasized that consideration of human factors, which was not emphasized in the design, safety assessment, and operation of SpaceShipTwo's feather system, is critical to safe manned spaceflight to mitigate the potential consequences of human error. “Manned commercial spaceflight is a new frontier, with many unknown risks and hazards. In such an environment, safety margins around known hazards must be rigorously established and, where possible, expanded. For commercial spaceflight to successfully mature, we must meticulously seek out and mitigate known hazards, as a prerequisite to identifying and mitigating new hazards.” In its submission to the NTSB, Virgin Galactic reports that the second SS2, currently nearing completion, has been modified with an automatic mechanical inhibit device to prevent locking or unlocking of the feather during safety-critical phases. An explicit warning about the dangers of premature unlocking has also been added to the checklist and operating handbook, and a formalized crew resource management (CRM) approach, already used by Virgin for its WK2 operations, is being adopted for SS2. However, despite CRM issues being cited as a likely contributing cause, Virgin confirmed that it would not modify the cockpit display system. While Virgin has been pursuing the development of a smallsat launch vehicle since 2012, the company began in 2015 to make the smallsat launch business a larger part of Virgin's core business plan, as the Virgin human spaceflight program has experienced multiple delays. This part of the business was spun off into a new company called Virgin Orbit in 2017. Following the crash of VSS Enterprise, test flights of the replacement spaceship, VSS Unity, were set to begin after ground tests completed in August 2016. VSS Unity completed its first flight, a successful glide test, in December 2016. The glide lasted ten minutes. By January 2018, seven glide tests had been completed, and on 5 April 2018 it performed a powered test flight, the first since 2014. By July 2018,Unityhad gone considerably higher and faster in its testing program than had its predecessor. On Thursday, December 13, VSS Unity reached a height of 82.7 km (51.4 miles) above the earth at speeds close to three times the speed of sound. The two pilots, Mark "Forger" Stucky and Frederick "CJ" Sturckow" earned commercial astronaut wings from the US government for the accomplishment, and brought Virgin Galactic closer to becoming the first private company to take customers to space. After a claimed investment by Virgin Group of US$100 million, in 2010 the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, Aabar Investments group, acquired a 31.8% stake in Virgin Galactic for US$280 million, receiving exclusive regional rights to launch tourism and scientific research space flights from the United Arab Emirates capital. In July 2011, Aabar invested a further US$100 million to develop a program to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit, raising their equity share to 37.8%. Virgin announced in June 2014 that they were in talks with Google about the injection of capital to fund both development and operations. The New Mexico government has invested approaching $200m (£121m) in the Spaceport America facility, for which Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant; other commercial space companies also use the site. In February 2007, Virgin announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA to explore the potential for collaboration, but, to date, this has produced only a relatively small contract in 2011 of up to $4.5 million for research flights. Virgin Group in January 2015, announced an investment into the OneWeb satellite constellation providing world Internet access service of WorldVu. Virgin Galactic will take a share of the launch contracts to launch the satellites into their 1200 km orbits. The prospective launches would use the under-design LauncherOne system. Virgin Galactic and the Virgin Group are collaborating with Boom Technology in order to create a new supersonic passenger transporter as a successor to the Concorde. This new supersonic plane would fly at Mach 2.2 (similar to Concorde) for a 3-hour trans-Atlantic flight (half of standard), projected to cost $2,500–10,000 per seat (half of Concorde) for a load of 45 passengers (the Concorde held 100). It is anticipated that with the accumulation of knowledge since the design of Concorde, the new plane would be safer and cheaper with better fuel economy, operating costs, and aerodynamics. Boom would collaborate with Virgin's The Spaceship Company for design, engineering, and flight-test support, and manufacturing. The initial model would be the Boom TechnologyXB-1"Baby Boom" Supersonic Demonstrator 1/3-size prototype. It would be capable of trans-Pacific flight, LA-to-Sydney in 6.75 hours, traveling at 2,335 km/h (1,451 mph). XB-1 would be equipped with General Electric J85 engines, Honeywell avionics, with composite structures fabricated by Blue Force using TenCate Advanced Composites carbon fibre products. First flight is scheduled for late 2017. Virgin Galactic has optioned 10 units. On January 24, 2019, Virgin Galactic announced they've partnered with Under Armour for fabrication of space suits for passengers and pilots of SpaceShipTwo. Under Armour will also create uniforms for Virgin Galactic employees working at Spaceport America. The full range of apparel and footwear is set to be revealed later this year, ahead of Richard Branson's inaugural commercial flight. David Mackay, former RAF test pilot, was named chief pilot for Virgin Galactic in 2011 and chief test-pilot. Steve Isakowitz was appointed as Virgin Galactic's president in June 2013. In October 2016, Mike Moses replaced Steve Isakowitz as president; Isakowitz moved to Aerospace Corp. to become President and CEO; Moses was promoted from VP Operations, and was once a NASA flight director and shuttle integration manager. Personnel[edit] Chairman: Richard Branson CEO: George Whitesides CFO: Jon Campagna President: Mike Moses Chief Pilot: Dave "Mac" Mackay Chief Flight Instructor: Mike "Sooch" Masucci VP Safety: Todd "Leif" Ericson Test Pilot: Mark "Forger" Stucky Test Pilot: Kelly "Cosmic" Latimer Pilot: Rick "CJ" Sturckow Pilot: Nicola Pecile Chief Astronaut Instructor: Beth Moses The Virgin Galactic passenger list is posted on a website not associated with Virgin Galactic. The site lists space tourists who have booked a flight with Virgin Galactic. The White Knight Two is a special aeroplane built as the mother ship and launch-platform for the spacecraft SpaceShipTwo and the unmanned launch vehicle LauncherOne. The mothership is a large fixed-wing aircraft with two hulls linked together by a central wing. Two aircraft are planned – VMSEveand VMSSpirit of Steve Fossett The LauncherOne system will use a Boeing 747-400 as the mothership. The B747Cosmic Girlhas been acquired for the duties. Spacecraft[edit] Richard Branson unveiled the rocket plane on December 7, 2009, announcing that, after testing, the plane would carry fare-paying passengers ticketed for short duration journeys just above the atmosphere. Virgin Group would initially launch from a base in New Mexico before extending operations around the globe. Built from lightweight carbon-composite materials and powered by a hybrid rocket motor, SS2 is based on the Ansari X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne concept – a rocket plane that is lifted initially by a carrier aircraft before independent launch. SS1 became the world's first private spaceship with a series of high-altitude flights in 2004. The programme was delayed after three Scaled Composites employees – Todd Ivens, Eric Blackwell and Charles May – were killed in an accident in Mojave on 26 July 2007, where the detonation of a tank of nitrous oxide destroyed a test stand. They had been observing the test from behind a chain-link fence that offered no protection from the shrapnel and debris when the tank exploded. Three other employees were injured in the blast and the company was fined for breaches of health and safety rules. The cause of the accident has never been made public. Its successor is twice as large, measuring 18 m (60 ft) in length; whereas SpaceShipOne could carry a single pilot and two passengers, SS2 will have a crew of two and room for six passengers. By August 2013, 640 customers had signed up for a flight, initially at a ticket price of $200,000 per person, but raised to $250,000 in May 2013. Tickets are available from more than 140 "space agents" worldwide. Passengers who have already submitted their deposit include Tom Hanks, Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, scientist and entrepreneur Alan Finkel, Australian science journalist Wilson da Silva and the late Stephen Hawking. SpaceShipTwo's projected performance[edit] SpaceShipTwo is projected to fly to a height of 110 km, going beyond the defined boundary of space (100 km) and lengthening the experience of weightlessness for its passengers. The spacecraft would reach a top speed of 4000 km/h (2485 mph). On 23 May 2014, Virgin Galactic announced that they had abandoned use of the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) nitrous-oxide-rubber motor for SpaceShipTwo; on 24 July 2014, SNC confirmed that they had also abandoned use of this motor for its Dream Chaser space shuttle. Future testing will see SpaceShipTwo powered by a polyamide grain powered motor. In honor of the science-fiction seriesStar Trek, the first ship is named after the fictional starshipEnterprise. To reenter the atmosphere, SpaceShipTwo folds its wings up and then returns them to their original position for an unpowered descent flight back onto the runway. The craft has a very limited cross-range capability, and until other planned spaceports are built worldwide, it has to land in the area where it started. Further spaceports are planned in Abu Dhabi and elsewhere, with the intention that the spaceline will have a worldwide availability and commodity in the future. Overview of the SS2 spacecraft flights[edit] SpaceShipTwo's planned trajectory would achieve a suborbital journey with a short period of weightlessness. Carried to about 16 kilometers, or 52,000 ft, underneath a carrier aircraft, White Knight II, after separation the vehicle would continue to over 100 km (the Kármán line, a common definition of where "space" begins). The time from liftoff of the White Knight booster carrying SpaceShipTwo until the touchdown of the spacecraft after the suborbital flight would be about 2.5 hours. The suborbital flight itself would be only a small fraction of that time, with weightlessness lasting approximately 6 minutes. Passengers will be able to release themselves from their seats during these 6 minutes and float around the cabin. In addition to the suborbital passenger business, Virgin Galactic will market SpaceShipTwo for suborbital space science missions and market White Knight Two for "small satellite" launch services. It had planned to initiate RFPs for the satellite business in early 2010, but flights had not materialized as of 2014. In February 2014, cracks in WhiteKnightTwo, where the spars connect with the fuselage, were discovered during an inspection conducted after Virgin Galactic took possession of the aircraft from builder Scaled Composites. LauncherOne is an orbital launch vehicle that was publicly announced by Virgin Galactic in July 2012. It is being designed to launch "smallsat" payloads of 200 kilograms (440 lb) into Earth orbit, with launches projected to begin in 2016. Several commercial customers have already contracted for launches, including GeoOptics, Skybox Imaging, Spaceflight Services, and Planetary Resources. Both Surrey Satellite Technology and Sierra Nevada Space Systems are developing satellite buses "optimized to the design of LauncherOne." In October 2012, Virgin announced that LauncherOne could place 200 kg (440 lb) in Sun-synchronous orbit. Virgin plans to market the 200 kg (440 lb) payload delivery to Sun-synchronous orbit for under US$10,000,000 per mission, while the maximum payload for LEO missions is 230 kg (500 lb). Virgin Galactic has been working on the LauncherOne concept since at least late 2008, and the technical specifications were first described in some detail in late 2009. The LauncherOne configuration is proposed to be an expendable, two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket air-launched from a White Knight Two. This would make it a similar configuration to that used by Orbital Sciences' Pegasus, or a smaller version of the StratoLaunch. In 2015, Virgin Galactic established a 150,000-sq.ft. research, development and manufacturing center for LauncherOne at the Long Beach Airport. The company reported in March 2015 that they are on schedule to begin test flights of LauncherOne with its Newton 3 engine by the end of 2016. On 25 June 2015, the company signed a contract with OneWeb Ltd. for 39 satellite launches for its satellite constellation with an option for an additional 100 launches. Engines[edit] LauncherOne will be a two-stage air-launched vehicle usingNewtonengines, RP-1/LOX liquid rocket engines. The second stage will be powered byNewtonOne, a 16 kilonewtons (3,500 lbf) thrust engine. It was originally intended that the first stage will be powered by a scaled-up design of the same basic technology as NewtonOne, calledNewtonTwo, with 211 kilonewtons (47,500 lbf) of thrust. Both engines have been designed, and as of January 2014[update] first articles have been built. NewtonOne was tested up to a full-duration burn of five minutes. NewtonTwo made several short-duration firings by early 2014. NewtonThreeis a 260–335-kilonewton (58,000–75,000 lbf)-thrust engine, and has only recently begun hot-fire tests as of March 2015[update]. More recent reports suggest that aNewtonThreewill power the first stage of LauncherOne. 2015 redesign: new engines, larger payloads, new carrier aircraft[edit] News reports in September 2015 indicate that the higher payload is to be achieved by longer fuel tanks and the NewtonThree engine but this will mean that White Knight Two will no longer be able to lift it to launch altitude. The rocket will be carried to launch altitude by a 747. The revised LauncherOne will utilize both the Newton 3 and Newton 4 rocket engines. In December 2015, Virgin announced a change to the carrier plane for LauncherOne, as well as a substantially-larger design point for the rocket itself. The carrier aircraft will now be a Boeing 747, which will in turn allow a larger LauncherOne to carry heavier payloads than previously planned. The modification work on the particular 747 that Virgin has purchased is expected to be completed in 2016, to be followed by Orbital test launches of the rocket in 2017. Fleet[edit] SpaceShipTwo (spaceships) VSS Enterprise (2010–2014) † VSS Unity (2016–present) VSS 3 (under construction) VSS 4 (under construction) WhiteKnightTwo (motherships) VMS Eve (2008–present ) Boeing 747 (motherships) Cosmic Girl (2015–present ) In 2008 it was announced that test launches for its fleet of two White Knight Two mother ships and five or more SpaceShipTwo tourist suborbital spacecraft would take place from the Mojave Spaceport, where Scaled Composites was constructing the spacecraft.[needs update] An international architectural competition for the design of Virgin Galactic's operating base, Spaceport America in New Mexico, saw the contract awarded to URS and Foster + Partners architects. In the same year Virgin Galactic announced that it would eventually operate in Europe out of Spaceport Sweden[needs update] or even from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. While the original plan called for flight operations to transfer from the California desert to the new spaceport upon completion of the spaceport, Virgin Galactic has yet to complete the development and test program of SpaceShipTwo. In October 2010, the 3,000 m (10,000 ft) runway at Spaceport America was opened, with SpaceShipTwo "VSS Enterprise" shipped to the site carried underneath the fuselage of Virgin Galactic's Mother Ship Eve. Virgin Galactic is not the only corporation pursuing suborbital spacecraft for tourism. Blue Origin is developing suborbital flights with its New Shepard spacecraft. Although more secretive about its plans, Jeff Bezos has said the company is developing a spacecraft that would take off and land vertically and carry three or more astronauts to the edge of space. New Shepard has flown above the Karman line, landed and been reflown to above the Karman line again. On 16 September 2014, SpaceX and Boeing were awarded contracts as part of NASA's CCtCap program to develop their Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, respectively. Both are capsule designs to bring crew to orbit, a different commercial market than that addressed by Virgin Galactic. Now-defunct XCOR Aerospace had also worked on rocket-powered aircraft during many of the years that Virgin Galactic had; XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle was under development for more than a decade, and its predecessor, the XCOR EZ-Rocket experimental rocket powered airplane did actually take flight, but the company closed its doors in 2017. There have been a series of delays to the SS2 flight test vehicle becoming operational, amidst repeated assurances from Virgin Galactic marketing that operational flights were only a year or two out. TheWall Street Journalreported in November 2014 that there has been "tension between Mr. Branson’s upbeat projections and the persistent hurdles that challenged the company’s hundreds of technical experts." The company has responded that "the company and its contractors 'have internal milestones, such as schedule estimates and goals, but the companies are driven by safety and the completion of the flight test program before moving into commercial service.' Virgin Galactic’s schedules have always been consistent with internal schedules of its contractors and changes have 'never impacted flight safety'."

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena. JPL is managed by the nearby California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Laboratory's primary function is the construction and operation of robotic planetary spacecraft, though it also conducts Earth-orbit and astronomy missions. It is also responsible for operating NASA's Deep Space Network. Among the Laboratory's current projects are the Cassini–Huygens mission to Saturn, the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility and Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator are designated National Historic Landmarks. The lab has an open house once a year on a Saturday and Sunday in May, when the public is invited to tour the facilities and see live demonstrations of JPL science and technology. More limited private tours are also available throughout the year if scheduled well in advance. Thousands of schoolchildren from Southern California and elsewhere visit the lab every year. The Planetary Science Summer School (PSSS) is an annual workshop sponsored by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The program involves an one-week team design exercise developing an early mission concept study, working with JPL's Advanced Projects Design Team ("Team X") and other concurrent engineering teams.

The Baikonur Cosmodrome, also called Tyuratam, is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility. It is located in the desert steppes of Kazakhstan, about 200 kilometres (124 mi) east of the Aral Sea, north of the Syr Darya river, near Tyuratam railway station, at 90 metres above sea level. It is leased by the Kazakh government to Russia (currently until 2050) and is managed jointly by the Russian Federal Space Agency and the Russian Space Forces. The shape of the area leased is an ellipse, measuring 90 kilometres east-west by 85 kilometres north-south, with the cosmodrome at the centre. It was originally built by the Soviet Union in the late 1950s as the base of operations for its space program. Under the current Russian space program, Baikonur remains a busy space port, with numerous commercial, military and scientific missions being launched annually. Vostok 1, the first manned spacecraft in human history, was launched from one of Baikonur's launch pads, which is presently known as Gagarin's Start. Many other historic flights lifted off from Baikonur: the first operational ICBM; the first man-made satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957; the first spacecraft to travel close to the Moon, Luna 1, on January 2, 1959; the first manned orbital flight by Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961; and the flight of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963. 14 cosmonauts of 13 other nations, such as Czechoslovakia, East Germany and France, started their historic journeys from here as well under the Interkosmos program. In 1960, a prototype R-16 ICBM exploded before launch, killing over 100 people. As an attempt to reduce its dependency on Baikonur, Russia is planning on constructing the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur Oblast.

The Hoba Meteorite is the largest known meteorite and likewise the largest known single mass of native iron known on earth. Hoba is a meteorite that lies on the farm "Hoba West", not far from Grootfontein, Namibia. It has been uncovered but, because of its large mass, has never been moved from where it fell. Hoba measures 2.95 x 2.84 meters and it has an average thickness of about 1 meter. The estimated 60+ ton Hoba meteorite is thought to have landed less than 80,000 years ago. It is inferred that the Earth's atmosphere slowed the object down to the point that it fell to the surface at terminal velocity, thereby remaining intact and causing little excavation. The meteorite is unusual in that it is flat on both major surfaces, possibly causing it to have skipped across the top of the atmosphere in the way a flat stone skips on water. Since its discovery the Hoba meteorite lost about half a ton of its substance through the taking of scientific samples and especially through 'specimen taking' by tourists and travellers.

Vredefort crater is the largest verified impact crater on Earth. It is located in the Free State Province of South Africa and named after the town of Vredefort, which is situated near its centre. The site is also known as the Vredefort dome or Vredefort impact structure. In 2005, the Vredefort Dome was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites for its geologic interest. The asteroid that hit Vredefort is estimated to be one of the largest ever to strike Earth (at least since the Hadean eon some four billion years ago). The asteroid's size has been calculated to be approximately 5–10 km (3.1–6.2 mi) wide. The crater has a diameter of roughly 250–300 km (155–186 mi), larger than the 200 km (124 mi) Sudbury Basin and the 170 km (106 mi) Chicxulub crater. This makes Vredefort the largest known impact structure on Earth. (The Wilkes Land crater in Antarctica, if confirmed to be the result of an impact event, is even larger at 500 kilometers across.) The Vredefort crater's age is estimated to be more than 2 billion years (2,023 ± 4 million years), striking during thePaleoproterozoic era. It is the second-oldest known crater on Earth, a little less than 300 million years younger than the Suavjärvi crater in Russia. It was originally thought that the dome in the center of the crater was formed by a volcanic explosion, but in the mid 1990s evidence revealed that it was the site of a huge bolide impact, as telltale shatter cones were discovered in the bed of the nearby Vaal River. The Vredefort crater site is one of the few multi-ringed impact craters on Earth, although they are more common elsewhere in the Solar System. Perhaps the best-known example is Valhalla crater on Jupiter's moon Callisto, although Earth'sMoon has a number as well. Geological processes, such as erosion and plate tectonics, have destroyed most multi-ring craters on Earth. The nearby Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) and Witwatersrand Basin were created during this same period, leading to speculation that the Vredefort bolide's mass and kinetics were of sufficient magnitude to induce regional volcanism. The BIC is the location of most of the world's known reserves of platinum group metals (PGMs), while the Witwatersrand basin holds most of the known reserves of gold.