---
title: "Virgin Galactic will get into space ‘within 18 months to two years’"
description: "Virgin Galactic will be carrying aloft its first paying customers \"within 18 months to two years\", according to chief executive George Whitesides."
date: "2015-06-05"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Andreea Popescu"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/andreeathecat"
url: "https://futurism.com/virgin-galactic-will-get-into-space-within-18-months-to-two-years"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# Virgin Galactic will get into space ‘within 18 months to two years’

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

- Speaking to the BBC at the Mojave Air and Space Port, Whitesides said the company is on track for lift-off "maybe sooner, but not much longer", despite being some way off finishing the replacement for its crashed SpaceShipTwo.
- While the final NTSB report into the accident is due in few weeks, Virgin Galactic is "confident the crash wasn’t due to a design issue". The BBC reports that on the new SpaceShipTwo "it'll be made physically harder to unlock the feathering system at the wrong time".
- While it might be imagined that the crash seriously rattled future SpaceShipTwo passengers, who've already stumped $250,000 a head for a ticket, Whitesides insisted: "The vast majority of our customers, so about 98 per cent, have been really terrific, very supportive.