---
title: "Get Ready, Space Tourists: FAA Issues License For Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo"
description: "The FAA-AST has just issued an operator license to Virgin Galactic to operate its SpaceShipTwo. The craft also had a test of its taxiing skills, which coincided with the approval."
date: "2016-08-02"
modified: "2016-08-02"
authors:
  - name: "Jelor Gallego"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jelor-gallego"
url: "https://futurism.com/get-ready-space-tourists-faa-issues-license-for-virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "FAA"
  - "spaceshiptwo"
  - "virgin"
---

# Get Ready, Space Tourists: FAA Issues License For Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/virgin-galactic.png>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://futurism.com" target="\_blank"\>Custom Photo\</a\>\</em\>*

Virgin Galactic has been quietly trying to lick its wounds ever since [a crash in late 2014](<https://futurism.com/virgin-galactic-space-rocket-crashes-mohave-desert>) stalled its space ambitions for a few years. But now it has [a brand new ship](<https://www.engadget.com/2016/02/19/virgin-galactic-unveils-the-new-spaceship-two/>) and a lot of high hopes for their future in space travel.

And now, they are a step closer to realizing those ambitions, after getting federal approval for their spacecraft. The US Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA-AST) [has just issued an operator license](<http://www.virgingalactic.com/faa-ast-awards-virgin-galactic-operator-license-for-spaceshiptwo/>) to Virgin Galactic to operate its SpaceShipTwo.

And it celebrated by taking a walk.

![undefined](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/download-1.jpg>)
*Virgin Galactic*

The FAA-AST granted the license after an in-depth review of the vehicles system design, safety analysis, and flight trajectory analysis, which made up several years of in-depth interaction with regulatory bodies.

The approval coincides with a SpaceShipTwo taxi test, an important milestone in testing and prepping the ship for launch.