Virgin Galactic unveils new space base, but no flights yet

Bloomberg

Caviar and seared tuna will be on the menu for Virgin Galactic astronauts in training when they arrive at the company’s new home in the desert scrublands of southern New Mexico. As they gaze out at the mountains east of the otherworldly structure, a master of espresso arts will dose out shots from a barista island, accompanied by multiple forms of dairy and dairy alternatives, including oat milk, of course.
As for when the actual flights will begin, no one’s saying yet.
Virgin Galactic executives offered journalists a tour of their chic new headquarters and customer centre at Spaceport America, declaring the facility “operationally ready” for space tourism.
After 15 years of struggle, including the fallout of a fatal accident and a subsequent spacecraft redesign, company officials were exuberant.
“The problem with history is that you don’t really [comprehend] it while it’s happening, but here we are and it’s happening — the launch of commercial space flights,” George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive officer, said at the spaceport.
The company declined to say when customer flights would begin, following years of faulty prognostication from Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, who has said he will be among the first to fly. Virgin has completed two test flights into space since December, with additional glide and powered flights planned from the new operating base.
The $200 million spaceport complex was designed by UK architects Foster + Partners; the exterior was completed several years ago, and the interior remained unfinished until recently.
The interior design reflects the Virgin brand and Branson’s personal approach to hospitality, executives said. Earth tones and warm fabrics on the ground floor give way to a “clinical, lighter feel” on the second (called Cirrus), explained Jeremy Brown, the company’s lead architectural designer.
The second story has employee workspaces, largely for meals and socialising, as well as mission control. A third floor “astronaut lounge” will be completed early next year. Part of mission control’s flight-day duties, President Michael Moses explained, will be “notifying someone about when to chill the Champagne for the party after the flight.”
More than 600 people from 60 countries have paid $250,000 for 90-minute rides into space. To keep the waiting list reasonable, Virgin has stopped taking reservations until commercial flights begin.