The Spaceship Company (TSC) is a British/American spacecraft manufacturing company that was founded by

Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the recor ...

and Richard Branson in mid-2005 and was jointly owned by

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding co ...

(70%) and

Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to deve ...

(30%) until 2012 when

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The compan ...

became the sole owner. TSC was formed to own the technology created by Scaled for

's Virgin SpaceShip program. This includes developments on the care-free reentry system and cantilevered-hybrid rocket motor, licensed from

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which ...

and

's Mojave Aerospace. The company is manufacturing Virgin Galactic's spacecraft and will sell spacecraft to other buyers. The suborbital launch system offered will include the

SpaceShipTwo The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic. SpaceShipTwo is ...

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

and the White Knight Two carrier aircraft.

History

2005-2010

The company was founded in 2005 by

and Richard Branson, and was initially jointly owned by

and

, to own the technology created by Scaled for

's Virgin SpaceShip program. Virgin Galactic was announced to be the launch customer for the SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo vehicles. Virgin placed an initial order for five SpaceShipTwos and two WhiteKnightTwos, with "exclusive use of the systems for the initial 18 months of commercial passenger operations." By late 2010, the company had announced plans to build three WhiteKnightTwo aircraft and five

rocket planes.

2011-present

Since the first WK2 and the first SS2 were built by Scaled Composites, TSC has responsibility for the manufacture of the second WK2 aircraft and the second SS2 spacecraft for Virgin Galactic, as well as additional production craft as other customers for the vehicles emerge.

acquired 100% ownership of TSC in 2012, by acquiring the 30% stake still owned by Scaled Composites, which itself had been acquired by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...

. The company had grown to 70 persons by July 2011, 145 by June 2013, 250 by July 2014, and 430 by July 2018. In June 2013, Doug Shane joined TSC to become executive VP and general manager, ending a 31-year career with Scaled Composites, including five as president. In July 2014, Shane was named president of the company. In 2016, it was announced that TSC, Virgin Galactic, and the Virgin Group, would be collaborating with

Boom Technology Boom Technology, Inc. (trade name Boom Supersonic) is an American company designing a , 65-88-passenger supersonic airliner. Named the Boom Overture, the airliner is planned to have a range of and to be introduced in 2025. After being incubat ...

to develop a supersonic trans-oceanic passenger jetliner. By February 2018, The Spaceship Company was "duplicating and testing prototypes of an original design of SpaceShipTwo" with the goal of sending a model into space in 2019. It is building models for Virgin Galactic.

Spaceship construction

In March 2010, following the construction of the prototypes of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo by Scaled Composites, The Spaceship Company stated in 2010 that it was moving the aircraft and spacecraft into commercial production.Welcome To TSC
The Spaceship Company webpage, accessed 2010-03-24. Quotation: "TSC has contracted Scaled Composites to develop and build prototypes of WK2 and SS2 and TSC is now taking these prototypes into commercial production." By July 2014, TSC was halfway complete with the build of the second SpaceShipTwo— VSS ''Unity''—and was 65 percent complete as of early November 2014. Virgin Galactic rolled out VSS ''Unity'' on 19 February 2016. A release by TSC on the company Twitter account in May 2018 showed two more spacecraft, after VSS ''Unity'', under construction.TheSpaceshipCompanyVerified account—@TheSpaceshipCo
via Twitter, 31 May 2018, accessed 1 June 2018.

Aircraft construction

TSC is collaborating with

to create a new

supersonic transport A supersonic transport (SST) or a supersonic airliner is a civilian supersonic aircraft designed to transport passengers at speeds greater than the speed of sound. To date, the only SSTs to see regular service have been Concorde and the Tupol ...

. The initial 1/3-size prototype would be the ''XB-1'' "Baby Boom" Supersonic Demonstrator.

Production facility

In November 2010, TSC broke ground on a aircraft assembly plant at

Mojave Air and Space Port The Mojave Air and Space Port at Rutan Field is in Mojave, California, United States, at an elevation of . It is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft, being certified as a s ...

Mojave, California Mojave (formerly Mohave) is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California, United States. Mojave is located east of Bakersfield, and north of Los Angeles, at an elevation of . The town is located in the western region of the Mojave D ...

. The manufacturing facility was expected to employ "up to 170 people when production is in full swing." In July 2011, TSC announced it would begin production of "the first sections for a second WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft along with the first of multiple SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital vehicles for Virgin Galactic and, ultimately, other customers" in the "Final Assembly, Integration and Test Hangar" (FAITH) in the fall of 2011. In September, 2011, TSC completed construction of the new plant, on schedule, for . The production of new spacecraft—initially three WhiteKnightTwo aircraft and five of the smaller SpaceShipTwo rocket planes—was planned to commence before the end of that month. The FAITH hangar is intended to be used for building the one-piece composite spars and wing for WK2, fuselage lay-up for both WK2 and SS2, and "will also be used for major maintenance and will serve as the company’s operating headquarters."

References

;General :*

External links

The Spaceship Company

Virgin Galactic video on TSC
as of the opening of the second hangar facility, September, 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Spaceship Company, The Mojave Air and Space Port Private spaceflight companies Scaled Composites Spacecraft manufacturers Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles Companies based in Los Angeles County, California American companies established in 2005 Technology companies established in 2005 2005 establishments in California