Former CEO George Whitesides to fly on next Virgin Galactic spaceflight
By Shubhangi on Jul 24, 2021 | 03:34 AM IST
Virgin Galactic founder, Richard Branson announced that the former CEO of the company,
George Whitesides will fly on the next spaceflight test.
CNBC
reported that Branson announced this in a party on July 11 in Las Cruces, New
Mexico.
“When [Branson] thanked George, he offhand, very casually,
said ‘and George will be leading our next flight,’ and people cheered,” said
Lori Garver, who previously served as the deputy administrator of NASA,
reported CNBC.
Branson had successfully completed his space travel earlier this month on Virgin Galactic rocket plane.
Whitesides has served as the CEO of Virgin Galactic from
2010 to 2020 and later shifted to the role of company’s chief space officer. Currently
he chairs the company’s space advisory board.
The timing of the launch is not known yet but the company
has earlier announced to complete the next two spaceflight tests this summer.
(With
inputs from CNBC)
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Credits: CNBC