Monday, October 8, 2012

Virgin Galactic Takes Full Ownership Of JV

Mojave-based Virgin Galactic, the commercial spaceflight firm owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, said late Friday that it has acquired 100 percent ownership of its sister company, The Spaceship Company (TSC). Virgin Galactic said it acquired the 30 percent stake in the joint venture which had been owned by partner Scaled Composites. Financial terms of the buy were not disclosed. Virgin Galactic said the buy marks the "successful completion" of its development phase of its WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo vehicles. Those two vehicles are designed to deliver tourists into suborbital space, and are based on the SpaceShipOne aircraft developed by Scaled Composites in 2004, which won the $10M Ansari X Prize. The two firms are still in testing phase of its new vehicles.

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