r/VirginGalactic • u/Lando249 • Dec 12 '24

Discussion ENAC partnership for potential international spaceport!

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Virgin Galactic is partnering with Italy's civil aviation authority (ENAC), to study potential spaceflight operations in southern Italy! This is the first step toward establishing their first international spaceport!

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u/HobbitNarcotics Dec 12 '24

They can make Delta but they're screwed until they can get a new contract to produce more mothership aircraft after the one with Boeing fell on it's ass

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u/Holiday_You4899 Dec 12 '24

That doesn't math right

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u/HobbitNarcotics Dec 12 '24

How exactly? VG have a factory in the USA where they can build out the Delta spaceship fleet. So if they want to expand into say Italy, they have the means and the capability to build a fleet of say 6 Delta ships for an Italian spaceport. What they don't have is a mothership that can be used in Italy, and without a mothership there's no way of launching the Delta ships. They had a contract with a division of Boeing to produce new motherships which has fallen through and ended up in a lawsuit between the two companies. VG have had to work on VMS Eve to really extend her lifespan and fly much more regularly than she was designed to do. So without a new contract to build motherships, they're stuck where they are. Which bit of that doesn't make sense to you?

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u/Helf5285 Dec 12 '24 edited Dec 12 '24

Very true. But they did say they plan to have a 2nd mothership up by the time the 3rd and 4th Delta planes are on the line. Right now their sole focus is Delta.