Editing Virgin Galactic (section)

===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 – FirebirdBiPodSpaceShipTwo Test SummariesWhiteKnightTwo Flight Test SummariesRocketMotorTwo Hot-Fire Test SummariesProjects – 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>