Tag: RICHARDBRANSON

After unveiling his 'Necker Nymph' submersible last year, Richard Branson is taking his underwater adventures to the next level, with 'Virgin Oceanic' -- an initiative to explore the deepest parts of the world's oceans. Over the next two years, Branson hopes to penetrate the deepest points of the world's five oceans with a fleet of high-tech toys, including a one-manned submarine and a ...

Virgin Galactic took a major step toward realizing the dream of commercial space travel yesterday when its SpaceShipTwo craft gracefully landed at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The landing marked the first piloted glide flight for the SpaceShipTwo, or VSS Enterprise, which was released from its mothership VSS Eve at an altitude of 45,000 feet. Manned by Pete Siebold and Mike ...

If you happen to be looking for a cheap flight on Virgin America this summer, you might want to spend a bit more time on Twitter. The airline, in collaboration with Twitter analytics service Klout, is now offering a free flight to anyone who has serious influence on the micro-blogging site. Klout determines a user's influence by analyzing several variables -- including an individual's followers, ...

Share Owning a private island, much like pimpin', ain't easy. No matter how tricked out it is, you've still got to have a way to get there, right? Such was the reasoning, apparently, behind Richard Branson's latest unnecessary purchase. As Daily Mail reports, the proud father of Virgin Records and sole proprietor of Necker Island has just unveiled a shiny new underwater plane, effectively ...

It's happening, people! Get your light sabers ready and throw on your Princess Leia cinnamon buns because we will soon be rocketing through space. That is, if we can each come up with the $200K needed to buy a ticket on SpaceShipTwo. But Spaceport America is now more of a reality than a aeronautical dream, which means that we will only have to travel to New Mexico to hop aboard a real-life space ...

Back in the summer of 2008, Virgin Galactic unveiled its WhiteKnightTwo spacecraft, a carrier designed to piggyback the world's first commercial space-liner. Today, after months of anticipation, Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson finally revealed the actual craft that the WhiteKnightTwo will jettison into space. According to Engadget, Virgin hopes that the shuttle known as SpaceShipTwo will ...

Recession? What recession? California-based company WaterCar has recently launched the Python, a sybaritic combination of hot rod and speed boat that costs upwards of $200,000. And for all those clams you won't be disappointed; as the fastest amphibious car on the market, the Python reaches speeds of up to 60 mph in the water (or 52 knots, for those of us more nautically inclined) and can top ...

At a press conference on Wednesday, a space tourism outfit known as Virgin Galactic showed off models of its privately developed spacecraft that will take paying customers on zero-G, suborbital flights in the next few years. The Associated Press reports that Richard Branson, a British Howard Hughes minus the neuroses, plans on flying customers approximately 62 miles above sea level – just ...

Three days ago, adventurer and aviation world record holder Steve Fossett went missing after he failed to return from a flight on a private plane. He took off in Nevada on the morning of Monday, September 3, and hasn't been heard of since. Unfortunately, he didn't file a flight plan before taking off, leaving thousands of square miles of open desert to search with no indication of where to look. A ...

We're still a number of years away before commercialized space flight becomes a reality. The day will come when you'll be able to write a check and hop on a craft that'll rocket you out of the stratosphere (without having to learn Russian). In the meantime, Virgin Galactic is forging ahead with plans to start construction of Spaceport America next year. As part of the buildup, they've released ...