Name: Virgin Galactic's CEO Details His Plan for Space Travel
Uploaded: 2016-05-17
Duration: 16 min 19 s

[ APPLAUSE ] Thank you, George, for joining us. So, I think the burning question in everybody's mind is how much longer will Loretta have to wait until her honeymoon? Yeah, that's a question that she asked me as well, so. And your response? When it's ready, honey, when it's ready. Patience is a virtue when it comes to space exploration. Exploration. I mean, yeah. We do live in an amazing moment in time. And the innovation in aerospace is incredible. And one of the things that I love talking about is, so, how many people have ever been to space? Has anybody been to space here? [ CROSSTALK ] [ LAUGH ] Can't see. I can't really see. More importantly, how many people want to go to space? [ CROSSTALK ] Raise your hand. Okay, there we go, a few. Can I ask one more question for you? Of course, yeah. How many of you would pony up 250 grand tonight to go to space? I don't have it. [ LAUGH ] You've got a few potential customers. Sorry, you were saying? No I was just saying you know, so about 550 people have ever gone to space. Ever. Which strikes me as an incredibly low number when you consider that many people fly on a 380. And one of the things that we wanna do at Galactic is just radically open up space, because it's been sort of closed off from us, it's been closed off from innovation, and we're living through a moment where You know, we're at an inflection point where, you know, come back in ten years and I think thousands of people will have gone into space. So let me challenge you on that a little bit, just going back to the 250 grand a pop. Yep. Which I know is much better than $ 20 million a ride, but another magazine, not ours, described your product as the company's main product is quite simple It is essentially the experience of five minutes weightlessness for a handful of rich people. You have said that you want to democratize space. So, explain to us how this is not just a joy ride for the rich. Sure. So, the first rides across the Atlantic Ocean were about $ 85, 000 to $ 90, 000, in adjusted money. So, These things often start off expensive. And there is no question that $ 250, 000 is expensive. There is no question. But you have to sort of start out. You establish the product and then that price comes down. And now you can buy a ticket across atlantic for $ 500. Now that's not going to happen overnight when it comes to space. But the idea of starting is what's exciting. And right now it's actually worse than $ 20 million so the Russians charge NASA 70, I was just as NASA before I took this job. The Russians charge NASA $ 70 million to go to the International Space Station. And so a $ 250, 000 ticket is. A couple hundred times cheaper. That's exactly the kind of innovation that we're seeing in space you see ten or 100 times cheaper or better going on. Where will that lead? That will lead to, soon enough, it will be 1, 000 times cheaper, it will be 10, 000 times cheaper. And that's when many more people will be able to experience it. And you've had over 700 people who have signed up now? Is that right? Yep, 700, yeah. You have a whole nother side of the business that's not just sending people up into space. Someday, but also sending mini satellites right, small satellites, can you explain what that part of the business, what you're planning on doing there. Yes. So we really have two businesses. We have a sort of a side that's focused on human space flight and a side that's focused on small satellites. We think small satellites are a really exciting part of the market. If you look at the statistics, it's a part of the market that's actually growing right now. So there are these new constellations of small satellites that are gonna be doing amazing things in remote sensing, navigation, communications, all these other applications, and they don't have a dedicated ride this space. So they often have to ride as a secondary payload Where they have to pay expensive fees and so what we're gonna be doing is creating a ride that's sort of, they can go when they want to go at an affordable price. What's the- talk about just the overall philosophy when you look at these two businesses. Your newest space craft is called unity. and you talk about the epiphany that a lot of people who have been to space have, so explain the philosophy. You wouldn't know it on a cloudy night like tonight, but I think- We called this conversation under the stars, so sorry the weather did not cooperate. We're still under the stars, damn it. They're just hit it. There's the vent up there. Anyway I mean, I really think that it's so inspiring to be at this conference because I mean you all are doing such important work you know, solving the biggest challenges of our time, and I think that, what is the, we were talking about emergent phenomenon, and what is the thing that's going to help us Explain that, by the way. I mean, I'm not an expert in emergent phenomenon, but sort of things that occur out of other things that sometimes aren't necessarily expected. But what is the thing that's going to help us as a species solve some of our biggest challenges? And I think one of those things is having the global perspective, or what I like to call planetary perspective. and I think about this thing called the overview effect, which is a scientifically documented thing where people go into space basically, they become changed and they have a new relationship with their home planet, and I think that that global perspective, or that planetary perspective is going to be crucial To helping us of some of the biggest problems that we have on planet earth. And so I think of the 700 people to start but eventually thousands and then tens of thousands of people who go into space and they will leave their planet even if it's only for a few minutes. And they will have this special moment and then I think about how those people will then go back to their home communities And I think that they're gonna have a really powerful impact sharing that perspective. And so, I mean, I'm excited about that idea. How long does that moment last? And when you're actually able to do this, what's the plan? Is it really just five minutes? So from takeoff to landing, it's about two hours. Ultimately our aspiration is to do point to point travel, which will be longer, but we'll start out with something that's about two hours long. And you said no flight attendants, right? They've actually had flight attendants already apply for jobs, but. [ LAUGH ] Yeah. No it's just we have two pilots in the front and up to six people in the back. Okay, so you have been at it for quite a number of years. So have other companies, of course. And you have had delays and setbacks. So I want to mention one of those, and have you kind of talk us through it. But October 31st, 2014. You had a test craft that broke apart in the air. Crashed in the Mojave Desert. One of the pilots was killed. The other one was injured. What was going through your mind when that happened? Well you know, that was a tough day but you know, the safety that the American aviation industry, the global aviation industry has today is the safest form Form of travel. Of any kind of travel. Was built on test life. And the accident that we had was in [ UNKNOWN ] And it will make our vehicles safer ultimately when we go to commercials service. So it was a tough day for the whole company. But I am really proud of the company that came together. We had a bunch of folks that came out of NASA. They went through one of the shuttle accidents. And they really helped some of the younger folks get through it. And now I think that we're really excited about moving back into test flight which we'll be doing soon. And what changes have you made because you have a new space craft out, like I mentioned Unity. What changes have been made on that craft? And also I understand that you actually took the manufacturing in house where it used to be Outsourced. Yeah so the major change that we've done is we've made sure that the thing that happened, which was like the pilot did something that he shouldn't have done, can't be done in normal flight. But more broadly what we've done is we were using a contractor to build and to test fly the vehicles, and What we've done is we've essentially brought that all in house, so we're now building the vehicles, and we're gonna test fly the vehicles and then we're gonna commercially operate the vehicles. What do you think is the role of regulation in your sector? Because in Silicon Valley the take is always regulation stands in the way of innovation, but some regulation is there for safety reasons, right? So where do you think things stand today with regulation? You know, it's yeah. You have to strike the right balance I think. If we impose the rules that are around commercial aviation on space flight at this moment, I'm not sure space flight would get off the ground. But at the same time. We have to be safe enough that we have to have a commercially viable industry. So, I think there's gotta be a balance between those two things. Okay, I want to go to all of you. I can't really see you guys, because I'm blinded. But, I do want to take a couple of questions from the audience. So just raise your hand. There's somebody walking around with a microphone. I think there's somebody up here. See, like I said, I can't see anything. My name's Lisa Ann Pinkerton with Women in Clean Tech and Sustainability. We know that the environmental movement sort of coincided with the first space travel and I'm curious to hear from you What impact do you think that more commercial space travel will have on the psyche of the populous in terms of saving this beautiful planet. Well, I mean we definitely live on the best planet in our solar system. [ LAUGH ] Like I know this. I'm- From experience? Yeah, I'm an expert. [ LAUGH ] But seriously, I really do hope that [ COUGH ] Having people either go into space themselves, or know people who've been into space Those people will get the fragility of our home spaceship. Right? We live on a spaceship and it's an awesome spaceship. It's been working basically very well for billions of years. And, we're doing stuff that could have a significant impact on the life support system of our spaceship. And, I think that's like, the thing that I wanna be yelling at elementary school students, to get, and I think having leaders and amazing people from around the world, experience that in a really deep way, I hope will help that in a bit. Because I do think it's arguably, the crucial Intellectual construct that we need to face some of these big challenges. Yelling at kids is always inspirational. It's what I do with my children, it seems to be working so far, so. [ LAUGH ] We have a question over here. Mike Hart with CR Energy. I'm a NASA alumni. Code Z, Dr. Clearwater, the Mars mission and such. But By the way, we're the ones who burst the bubble in the fact that sex in space has already happened. [ LAUGH ] Sorry. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] We'll leave it at that. We'll leave it that. But the question is, you're talking about taking six people at a quarter million dollars a pop. So, $ 1. 5 million in gross. What kind of operating costs are you guys projecting? We think it's going to be a very profitable business. I won't give you the exact margins. But it should be a good businesses. I mean, the thing about space businesses, in general, is that they've got high capex, high non- recurring up front. And then hopefully, you have a good business once you get through that. And we're the exact same way. It's a lot of money to get to the starting line. But one you get there. Should be a good business. How much have you guys to date, by the way? We've raised over 600 million. It helps having Richard Branson on board. Question over here. Yeah, hi, it's Mike from [ UNKNOWN ]. Could you help for those not really familiar with the space, your competitors, what you're doing, what's different from what you're doing and what the others are doing. Sure, yeah. So, I mean, we have a few competitors on both sides of our business. So, in terms of [ UNKNOWN ] space flight blue origin is also trying to do that, that's Jeff [ UNKNOWN ] company. [ COUGH ] And then there's one or two other companies that are somewhat less funded. And then on the orbital side, there are a few other small satellite companies. There's a company called Rocket Lab, which is a good company actually but a bit smaller than what we're doing. And then obviously there are the bigger companies but they're not as focused on small satellites. And what we are really focused on is air launch, so both of our vehicles are air launched which means we take a carrier aircraft and it takes up the space vehicle and then releases that space vehicle from altitude and then that goes up. And that offers two different benefits depending on what business you're talking about. So for the space flight vehicle that offers safety benefits Because you have this margin of safety when you're released you have about 10 minutes of glide time to figure out anything or just come back and you can do a smooth runway landing. So it's a safety issue for the space flight time. And then for the Small satellite side, it's basically a convenience thing, so, right now at the national ranges there's sort of an order in which you launch, and there can be a line. And if there's a national security payload in front of you, you might have to wait a couple months or three months or more. With air launch, you can just fly out over the Pacific Ocean and launch almost on need. Not exactly, but close to that. So we think that we'll be able to be more responsive to our customers with the air launch operating model. Other questions in the audience, just yell out because I can't see you. No, okay. So, you mentioned yelling at children. [ LAUGH ] Are you seeing? And, you also mentioned a renaissance in space travel. Are you seeing increased interest from high schoolers, from University students and going into aerospace. I think this is an amazing time to be an engineer. And whether that's working in the energy field, or whether it's working in aerospace, it's an incredible time because you're able to work on real projects that can scale and do huge things. It's probably the best time to be an aerospace engineer since the Apollo era, because not only can you go and do this tremendous amount of different things But you're gonna get paid well, and you're gonna get your hands dirty building stuff. And so, it's a great time to be an aerospace engineer. Yeah, it's a great time. Good to know. So, I will end with this. I actually canvassed a very elite group, very elite focus group known as my family and friends, [ LAUGH ] And ask what questions they would have for Virgin Galactic. And a lot of them were more on the frivolous side. So will my soon- to- be- defunct Virgin America miles work on Virgin Galactic? [ LAUGH ] First of all, they're not gonna be defunct. And second of all No, yeah. Alright how is the leg room? The leg room is terrific. [ LAUGH ] And then will the peanuts be salted or plain? At $ 250, 000 you can get your peanuts whatever way you want. [ LAUGH ] And a martini right? I'll just end actually on the same question that I had initially. I know you guys have kind of stopped giving, or I should say Richard Branson has stopped giving a timeline, but can you give Give any indication. Well, we're about to start test flying our next spaceship, VSS Unity. And that process will take as long as it needs to take because we're gonna take the time we need to get it to be a safe vehicle. And when we're ready to, when the engineers say we're ready we're gonna start flying it commercial service. And it's gonna be fantastic. Great. Well, if you want To buy a ticket, come see George. I think you're sticking around, right? Yep, just dance for everybody. [ LAUGH ] It comes through with your brain storm registration. [ LAUGH ]