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Virgin Galactic
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== Structure and history== === Formation and early activities === Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 by British [[entrepreneur]] Sir [[Richard Branson]], who had previously founded the [[Virgin Group]] and the [[Virgin Atlantic]] airline, and who had a long personal history of [[hot air balloon|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).<ref>{{cite web |author=Martin |first=Grant |date=4 August 2008 |title=Sir Richard Branson's Private Jet |url=http://gadling.com/2008/08/04/sir-richard-bransons-private-jet/ |publisher=Gadling}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Window Seat |url= http://www.traveldaily.com.au/photos/window-seat-2/194910 |date= 29 January 2011 |publisher= Travel Daily }}</ref> ===The Spaceship Company=== {{main|The Spaceship Company}} [[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.<ref name="Sdc20050725">{{cite news | url=http://www.space.com/news/050727_branson_rutan.html | title=Richard Branson and Burt Rutan Form Spacecraft Building Company | publisher=[[SPACE.com]] | date=27 July 2005 | access-date=17 October 2009}}</ref> Scaled Composites was contracted to develop and build the initial prototypes of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, and then TSC began production of the follow-on vehicles beginning in 2008.<ref>[http://www.virgingalactic.com/jobs/Vehicle%20Production%20Planner.pdf] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091122222351/http://www.virgingalactic.com/jobs/Vehicle%20Production%20Planner.pdf|date=22 November 2009}}.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.scaled.com/projects/ttop/press_release.pdf|title=Scaled Composites: Projects β FirebirdBiPodSpaceShipTwo Test SummariesWhiteKnightTwo Flight Test SummariesRocketMotorTwo Hot-Fire Test SummariesProjects β Main Landing Page Te...<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=2009-06-22|archive-date=2009-04-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090419073325/http://www.scaled.com/projects/ttop/press_release.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2012, after [[Northrop Grumman]] acquired Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic acquired the remaining 30% of The Spaceship Company.<ref name=yf20121005>{{cite press release|title=Virgin Galactic Acquires Full Ownership of The Spaceship Company|url=http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20121005005907/en/Virgin-Galactic-Acquires-Full-Ownership-Spaceship-Company#.VFvXsPnF98E|access-date=2012-10-06|date=2012-10-05}}</ref> ===Investors=== After a claimed investment by [[Virgin Group]] of {{USD|100 million}},<ref name=abcnews/> in 2010 the [[sovereign wealth fund]] of [[Abu Dhabi]], [[Aabar Investments]] group, acquired a 31.8% stake in Virgin Galactic for {{USD|280 million}}, receiving exclusive regional rights to launch tourism and scientific research space flights from the [[United Arab Emirates]] capital.<ref name="abcnews"> {{cite news |last1=Schreck|first1=Adam |title=Abu Dhabi partners with Virgin Galactic spaceship firm |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=8191703 |access-date=2014-06-16 |publisher=ABC News }}</ref> In July 2011, Aabar invested a further {{USD|110 million}} to develop a program to launch [[smallsat|small satellites]] into [[low Earth orbit]], raising their equity share to 37.8%.<ref>{{cite news |title=Abu Dhabi's Aabar boosts Virgin Galactic stake |url=http://www.marketwatch.com/story/abu-dhabis-aabar-boosts-virgin-galactic-stake-2011-10-19 |access-date=2014-06-16 |publisher=Market Watch |date=2011-10-19 }}</ref> Virgin announced in June 2014 that they were in talks with [[Google]] about the injection of capital to fund both development and operations.<ref name="sn20140612"> {{cite news |last1=Kleinman|first1=Mark |title=Google In Talks To Take Virgin Galactic Stake |url=http://news.sky.com/story/1280919/google-in-talks-to-take-virgin-galactic-stake |access-date=2014-06-16 |publisher=SkyNews |date=2014-06-12 }}</ref> The New Mexico government has invested approximately $200m (Β£121m) in the Spaceport America facility, for which Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant; other commercial space companies also use the site. On Monday 28 October 2019, Virgin Galactic listed into the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the ticker symbol 'SPCE', the first publicly traded space tourism company (i.e., company whose primary business is space tourism). The company raised $450 million through a SPAC merger listing, and company's market value after listing was more than $2.4 billion. At the time, the company claimed to have over 600 customer reservations representing approximately $80 million in total collected deposits and more than $120 million in "potential revenue".<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-10-28|title=Virgin Galactic launches (on the New York stock exchange)|url=http://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/oct/28/virgin-galactic-spce-launches-new-york-stock-exchange-richard-branson|access-date=2021-03-14|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref>
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