"Your brand needs to make its mark, and making that mark means that when you go offer space travel or something, people will say they'd like you to be successful at that as well. "If you're going to launch an airline in America, you need to make sure it's far and away the best airline, and make sure you do it with panache and style and fun and flair, and really shake up the industry," Branson says. Renowned among travelers for their candy-colored onboard mood lighting, plush leather seats, expansive in-flight entertainment systems and passenger-to-passenger messaging tools, Virgin America aircraft now serve 18 locations across the U.S. The roots of Virgin Galactic lie in Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin America, the latter of which began flying out of San Francisco five years ago. "Whatever happens, it's going to be ridiculously exciting. One day, maybe even hotels in space-who's to know?" Branson asks.
"First we're taking people to suborbital space travel, then orbital, and then we'll be able to put satellites into space at a fraction of the price it currently costs. However, unlike other Virgin initiatives, Galactic is not an alternative to slow-footed, self-satisfied legacy corporations that have lost their way it's the vanguard of a nascent industry, with no rules to break and no establishment to topple. Like all Virgin efforts, the Galactic unit emerged out of Branson's deep dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Slated to begin suborbital test flights later this year and passenger service by year's end, Virgin Galactic has already signed up nearly 500 customers willing to fork over $200,000 each to reach an altitude of about 68 miles above the Earth's surface. It's a philosophy that is central to the Virgin brand and ethos, and it's the catalyst behind the project he calls "the most exciting thing" the company has ever pursued: Virgin Galactic, the commercial aerospace business devoted to providing spaceflights to everyday (albeit deep-pocketed) citizens.
Of course Branson has always done things a bit differently. "We're a little more secure now, so we do things a bit differently." "A lot of my entrepreneurial skills now are spent in setting up not-for-profit organizations," he says.
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