4. Demographics:
Name of Organization : Virgin Galactic, one of over 400 companies within the Virgin
Group
Founded: 2004 by British billionaire Richard Branson
Industry: Futuristic Space Tourism
Market Position : somewhat unclear, but certainly an industry leader
5. Brief History of Organization:
● 2004 - organization founded and original stated goal was to fly private citizens into
sub-orbital space by 2008
● 2007 - fatal explosion kills 3 Virgin Galactic employees
● 2014 - fatal explosion during test flight of VSS Enterprise killing co-pilot Mike
Alsbury
● 2018 - VSS Unity performs first successful test flight
● 2019 - Virgin Galactic becomes a publicly traded company trading on the NYSE
under the symbol SPCE
● 2019 - A series of successful test flights encourages investors
6. Executive Management
CEO - Michael Colglazier - former President of Disney Parks International
CSO (Chief Space Officer) - George Whitesides - former Chief of Staff for NASA
President - Space Missions - Michael Moses - former Launch Integration Manager, Kennedy
Space Center
Chief Pilot - Dave McKay - 16 year-veteran of the British Royal Air Force
Director of Flight Test - Mark Stuckey - retired U.S. Marine, USAF, NASA Aerospace
Engineeer
7. Thesis
While Virgin Galactic has certainly made headlines due to their sub-orbital space flight
program, I argue that this organization should soon reallocate funding away from that
avenue and towards their inter-continental supersonic jet program while simultaneously
focusing on long-term employee recruitment as this industry relies on constant
innovation and companies who fail to recruit the best young minds will be overtaken by
competitors.
8. What does Virgin Galactic do?
Scaled Composites Model 348 Whight Knight Two
● Quadjet cargo aircraft used to lift VSS Unity
VSS Unity
● SpaceShipTwo - class suborbital rocket
● Holds up to six passengers
● Estimated cost : $30 -35 million
● Viability: 10 years, 50 flights per year
9.
10. Target Market
● Wealthy individuals, thrill seekers, researchers
● Seats aboard the VSS Unity are currently being sold for $250,000
● Clients will train at Spaceport America New Mexico
● Entire flight is estimated to take about 90 minutes
11. Other service:
● Intercontinental Supersonic Jet Program
● Codesign with Rolls Royce
● Estimated flight time from New York to London is around 2 hours (currently the
trip takes nearly 7)
12. Financials
Numbers are given in millions USD
Virgin Galactic:
● Market Value: $6.58 billion
SpaceX
● Estimated revenue of nearly
$2.5 billion, but not publicly
traded
● Market Value : $50 billion
(Morgan Stanley)
Blue Origin
● Claims profitability, but is not
publicly traded
● Market Value: Unknown
14. Strengths:
1. Unique Product
2. Strong Brand Recognition
3. Ample Funding
4. Successful Test Flights
5. Branson will be flown on VSS Unity in 2021 with commercial flights to follow for
paying customers
16. Recommendations:
1. Deliver on promises of sub-orbital space flight
2. Focus heavily on connecting the world via supersonic jets (New York, London, Los
Angeles, Beijing, Sydney, etc…)
3. Hire former NASA officials and recruit from top aerospace-engineering PhD
programs
4. Develop Virgin Galactic PhD Fellowship Program
17. Conclusion
1. Virgin Galactic has a unique technology that gives them a competitive advantage
2. While there are positive developments in their sub-orbital space technology, that
avenue alone is not going to guarantee profits in the future
3. Developing safe, affordable supersonic inter-contential commercial flight is a key
growth area that should be heavily researched
4. To succeed in this industry, emphasis needs to be increased on hiring practices
Finally, why does this matter to us?
Name, organization
Why I chose Virgin Galactic? My brother is a PhD candidate at UCLA in aeropace engineering
In many conversations with him I have come to realize that this is a truly amazing industry and I am excited to share what I have learned with you
Photo is of Richard Branson speaking at SpacePort America Mojave a number of years ago
Stephen Hawking quote - “We are entering a new space age and I hope this will create a new unity. Space exploration has already been a great unifier, we seem able to cooperate between nations in space in a way we can only envy on Earth”
Virgin Galactic imagines a world where thousands of people live in space (perhaps on the moon, space stations, hotels that orbit the globe, eventually Mars, the moons of Saturn, etc…) While this all may seem quite far off, companies that are able to be at the vanguard of this industry will have ample opportunities to profit.
Virgin Group started as Virgin Records in the latter half of the 20th century, overtime many new companies have arisen from Virgin, one such company is Virgin Galactic
In 2004 Richard Branson purchased something known as the SpaceShipOne Flight system, which was the first piece of private technology capable of flying citizens into space
The industry is very loosly defined as “futuristic space tourism” What that means is there are a small handful of companies who are attempting to fly private citizens into space. Now the reason why I say that it is loosely defined is because each company is bringing different innovations to the market and it is unclear which product will be superior
Many famous people have already bought tickets to fly with VG, among them are Tom Hanks, Justin Bieber, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and many more
Could appeal to a larger market since tickets will certainly be expensive, but much more feasible for most people to afford and will have repeat customers,
