Virgin Galactic vs Blue Origin - A Detailed Comparison in 2024
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Happy Friday, Space Enthusiasts! ??
While SpaceX continues to make headlines with plans to decommission the International Space Station, the recent failure of its Falcon 9 rocket, and talk of moving headquarters from California to Texas, their rivals are working to catch up and make their mark on the Space industry in its own right. Virgin Galactic recently unveiled its new manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona, to handle the final assembly of the company's next-generation Delta spaceships and Blue Origin completed a first-stage test of its new rocket, New Glenn's six landing legs.
While both Virgin and Blue started with their sights set on Space Tourism, the dynamic industry landscape has led each to take their own distinct approaches to accessing the cosmos.
Read on to learn more about Virgin Galactic's new manufacturing facility, a detailed comparison of Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic in 2024, and this week's top Space news.
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Space News Highlight ?
Virgin Galactic Unveils New Manufacturing Facility in Arizona
Virgin Galactic has completed its new manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona. Starting in Q1 2025, this facility will handle the final assembly of the company's next-generation Delta spaceships. The Mesa facility includes two hangars with multiple bays, designed for flexibility in building and testing space vehicles.
The Delta spaceships will seat up to six private passengers and are expected to fly up to eight missions monthly, significantly increasing access to space.
?? Virgin Galactic vs Blue Origin: A Detailed Comparison
Since founding their respective space tourism endeavours, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos have had big dreams a commercial space sector that would make space accessible. The sort of customer base they had in mind has yet to materialize for both Branson’s Unity flights and Bezos’s company Blue Origin’s suborbital flights on its New Shepard rocket. But both companies still have faith in their vision: opening space up to more people (that is, if you can afford a ticket).
With both companies’ futures at a crossroads, their plans are undeniably different; while Blue is expanding its reach beyond passenger flights, angling for juicy government contracts, Virgin is doubling down on tourism. But will their visions ever be more than dreams?
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin's Space Tourism Offerings - An Overview
Virgin Galactic, the world’s first self-described ‘spaceliner’, offers one service, and one service only: flying you to the edge of space and back. A flight lasts around 90 minutes. It begins with a carrier plane hauling the spaceplane to a certain altitude; then, the spaceplane separates and blasts off to about 80 kilometers in altitude. Here, passengers experience about six minutes of weightlessness before the spaceplane comes back down and lands on a runway.?
Blue’s tourism service is different. Instead of a spaceplane, it flies tourists on its 18-meter tall New Shepard rocket, which consists of a booster and capsule. The rocket blasts off to an altitude of about 75 kilometers, where the two components separate. The capsule keeps ascending until it reaches a peak altitude of over 100 kilometers, which is above the internationally recognized boundary of space (as Blue pointed out in a shady infographic leading up to its race with Virgin). Meanwhile, the booster descends and lands itself. Aboard the capsule, passengers experience three to four minutes of weightlessness before they too descend and land via parachute. The whole thing lasts around ten minutes, with a ticket costing at least $1 million (though exact prices vary according to the passenger and are often kept mum).
Space Exploration and Tourism
At the moment, Blue Origin is mostly known for its short tourism flights which, like Virgin’s, have been used for science as well. But Blue wants more. It’s already under contract with NASA to land people on the moon for the agency’s third human landing; its space station Orbital Reef, described as a business park in space, is also backed by NASA as a possible commercial successor to the ISS. Then there’s the company’s new rocket New Glenn, which is launching a NASA Mars mission on its maiden flight and is designed to compete with SpaceX’s rockets. In general, most of Blue’s grand exploratory plans have yet to make their debut – only time will tell what role they will play.
Virgin is all about space tourism. The company doesn’t seem to have any immediate ambitions to conquer the space industry like Blue; it’s focusing on suborbital spaceplane flights which, as Rutan had described, are a happy medium between orbital flights and exorbitant costs. In addition to flying tourists, though, Virgin’s service has been used as a space research and training platform allowing researchers to run experiments in microgravity without spending a few million bucks for a trip to the ISS.
Public Perception and Media Presence
Both participants of the billionaire space race, Virgin and Blue received their fair share of public ridicule; after all, it’s almost too easy to poke fun at the image of billionaires building rockets and leaving the planet to burn. Unsurprisingly, the companies have been eager to distance themselves from this branding, and both stress the apparent benefits they offer humanity in their PR.?
Virgin plays up the angle of the wonders of spaceflight, its powerful impact on one’s perspective of the Earth, and how, thanks to its service, you too can experience it. This is highly publicized on social media; Virgin’s pages are laden with sleek neon visuals, cinematic cuts of missions and progress, and tearjerking, up-close-and-personal tales from its passengers. Still, this wasn’t enough to deter critics, who were quick to point out that renewing your appreciation of Earth with Virgin’s service creates 4.5 metric tons of CO2 per person – more than the average person’s annual carbon footprint.?
Blue takes a slightly different approach and puts Earth’s environment at the forefront of its marketing. It’s also invested in some clever PR with some of its passengers, who have included William Shatner as well as Wally Funk, a then-82-year-old aerospace legend and one of the first women trained as astronauts. Blue makes sure you know all this from looking at its social media, though this is slightly more reserved than Virgin’s. However, Blue doesn’t hold back with its infamous passive aggressive infographics, which it has used to throw shade on rivals like Virgin and SpaceX when competition got hot. Blue is now known for its cheek – even if it hasn’t yet rolled out the hardware to back it up.?
In a way, space is the perfect billionaire’s playground; it’s exciting, it’s damned expensive, and it might well play a significant part in humanity’s future. What better way to secure one’s role in history than to begin building it? But as seen with Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, doing so involves more than just chucking money at some nuts and bolts. It needs a plan, and a good one – one that is as practical as it is ambitious. Blue and Virgins’ visions of hundreds, thousands, and millions of people in space to life depend on whether the companies can build not just a dream but a business.?
Want to learn more? Read the full article by Julia Seibert here.
Looking for more insights and resources to learn about and compare commercial, government, and academic space entities? The Space Impulse Market Intelligence Platform has captured data on the key companies, investors, universities and government organizations in the space tech industry.
Space Industry Quote of the Week ??
"We're going to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build the future. And we need to do that. We need to do that to solve the problems here on Earth. It's not about escaping."
- Jeff Bezos discussing the importance of accessible space exploration.
Weekly Space News Roundup ??
According to industry sources, Airbus and 泰雷兹 are in early discussions about a potential collaboration on their satellite activities to address challenges from new competitors in the space sector. These exploratory talks, supported by the French government, follow a similar attempt at a collaboration in 2019 that faced potential anti-trust issues. France’s competition authority stated it is too early to comment on the current discussions.
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Any potential alliance between Airbus and Thales would require approval from both EU and national authorities, including those of France, Italy, and Germany.
LeoLabs has been selected to support the UK Space Command ’s Project Tyche, a 150-kilogram research and development satellite. The satellite is part of the ISTARI program, which aims to test and demonstrate technologies for the UK’s first multi-satellite intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) constellation in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
LeoLabs will provide Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Domain Awareness (SDA) services, including persistent monitoring of selected high-interest objects to ensure the safety and security of space operations. Project Tyche is scheduled to launch summer of 2024.
Saudi Arabia and the United States have signed a framework agreement to boost cooperation in civilian space exploration and research. The agreement, titled “Framework Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Cooperation in Aeronautics and the Exploration and Use of Airspace and Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes,” aims to create a legal framework to facilitate and strengthen this collaboration. The agreement also acknowledges the importance of the Artemis Accords.
Rocket Lab has signed a preliminary agreement under the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act for up to $23.9 million in funding to expand and modernize its operations. This agreement aims to increase Rocket Lab’s compound semiconductor production for spacecraft and satellites, addressing the rising demand for these solar cells both for national security and consumer needs.
The proposed funding under the CHIPS Act will enable Rocket Lab to bring more than 100 direct manufacturing jobs to Albuquerque and boost the facility’s production capacity by 50% over the next three years
KBR, Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire LinQuest to enhance its high-end technology and mission capabilities across the air, space and digital sectors. The transaction, valued at $737 million, is expected to be accretive to adjusted EPS, excluding amortization of purchased intangible assets and non-recurring transaction costs. KBR’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the transaction, which awaits regulatory approvals and is expected to close in Q3 or Q4 of this year.
NorthStar Earth & Space has secured new shareholder financing led by Telesystem Space. The funding will accelerate NorthStar’s development of its patented space-based Space Situational Awareness (SSA) Concept of Operations (CONOPS).
NorthStar stands out as the only company with a US patent for its CONOPS, which locates, identifies, and tracks potential space threats. The company is also pursuing additional patents for its innovative technologies.
Astra announced the completion of its take-private transaction, delisting from Nasdaq and transitioning to private ownership under Apogee Parent, Inc. The entity is formed by Astra’s co-founders, Chris Kemp and Adam London . According to the agreement, Apogee Parent, Inc. will acquire all outstanding shares of Astra’s Class A common stock for $0.50 per share in cash.
Astra also plans to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to suspend its periodic reporting obligations and terminate the registration of its Class A shares.
EOS-X SPACE has announced plans to begin space flights from Abu Dhabi and Seville by the third quarter of 2025. The price per passenger will range between 150,000 and 200,000 euros.
Additionally, the company will create a SpaceHub Complex in Seville, featuring immersive experiences and an ultra-luxury hotel in the province of Seville, providing pioneering treatments and experiences.
EOS-X SPACE is in a 115 million euro Series D investment round led by US investment bank FTI Capital Advisors. The company projects a revenue growth of 220% over five years, ensuring profitability from the first year of operations.
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