Virgin Galactic

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2

I. History and Evaluation of Space Tourism 3

II. Introduction of Virgin Galactic 3

III. Mission and Vision 3

IV. Business Strategy 3

V. Market Research 4

VI. Technology Strategy 4

A. Porter's Five Forces 4

B. SWOT Analysis 6

C. Ans-Off Matrix 7

D. BCG Matrix 7

VII. Technical Issues And Space Vehicle of Virgin Galactic 7

VIII. Future of Space Tourism 8

IX. Future of Virgin Galactic 8

X. References 9

I. History and Evaluation of Space Tourism

Space tourism, which offers a unique type of adventure, is no longer a dream or fantasy, but it is nearly materialized. Currently, companies in Russia, Europe, and the United States are competing to become future leaders of space tourism. Bigelow Aerospace, is currently designing inflatable spacecrafts for future hotels. The emerging space tourism industry has, to date, focused primarily on technological considerations. Technological concerns will undoubtedly remain critical for many years to come. When we look at the history we can not define a reliable market because still under process but since last 10 years there were a lot of studying and designing to set up a space tourism business in the reality. NASA and other international space stations have worked together testing the flight of rockets and there are currently several companies achieving space tourism with an increasing number of commercial enterprises starting up in the field.

II. Introduction of Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic one of those companies who made space tourism to become sound more logically and made it up in the public mind. However, Virgin Galactic will be the first private space tourism company to send civilians into space. In December of 2005, Virgin Galactic announced that it will locate the headquarters and Mission Control in New Mexico. Virgin Galactic is part of a group of companies with good staff has the experience in aviation and innovation. Each company shares same ideas, values, interests and goals.

III. Mission and Vision

Virgin Galactic, hereby referred to as VG, is owned and established by Richard Branson's Virgin Group. The main task is the overcome the challenges of making private space travel available to everyone through the creation of the world's first commercial space line. VG is the leading company in the Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle (SRLV) industry.

The vision of Virgin Galactic (VG) is "to successfully build the world's first environmentally benign space launch system and prove once and for all the commercial viability of a safe space launch system that we believe will eventually be capable of taking pay load and science into space as well as people" (Lowe, 2006). Its aircrafts are privately built and modeled on the Spaceship One. Virgin has used the unique technology developed by Burt Rutan to enhance had years of experience in aviation. The unique spacecraft has safety as one of the main concerns in its research and development program in Mojave, California, home of Rutan's base. They envision this to be the new era in the history of mankind, bringing the dream of everyday human beings exploring space. Their spaceships will allow "affordable sub-orbital space tourism for the first time in the history of the universe." (Virgin Galactic, 2007).

IV. Business Strategy

For efforts to improve its attraction, Virgin Galactic provides excellent services for its customers. VG emphasizes safety as its No.1 objective, bringing confidence to its customers, and to no surprise prior to each two-hour flight, customers must receive a series of flight preparations which mainly cover two partsÐ'--considerate and detailed medical checks and multiple physical exercises for the flight. The devices used in various exercises and the two-hour flight are all user-friendly. During the flight, customers can enjoy scenarios through panoramic individual windows and other kinds of happiness. After the trip, customers will get some videos and photographic images, which can be shared with their families and their friends. A part of the rocket motor used on the trip will be given to customers as memento.

The collaboration of Virgin Galactic with its sister companies is another wise strategy that brings another competitive advantage to VG. It is believed that the established brand recognition of Virgin Group brings high reputation to Virgin Galactic and high confidence to customers. Meanwhile, both the strong financial assistance from Virgin Group and the cooperation with its sister companies provide Virgin Galactic conveniences and reduce costs in running its business and enforcing its influence in the market. The two main competitors of Virgin Galactic don't possess similar close partners and can't enjoy similar supports and benefits.

V. Market Research

According to the statistics provided by the survey conducted by Futron corp. (2002), marriage and gender are two most important factors impacting the preference of the space trip. In the survey, all married persons were interested in the space trip and willing to pay $100,000 to $250,000 for the trip. 94% of the male respondents were interested in the luxurious trip while only 6% female respondents were interested in it. Thus, in short term, the fans and consumers of suborbital trip will be the rich married males.

The survey also showed that only 20% respondents had no interest in space travel. However, in the 20% uninterested responses, individuals rejected the trip for different reasons. For 21% it was the high expense, and for 11% it was the risk. This means that space travel will still be attractive to them if VG can reduce the expenses and provide its customers confidence for safety of trips. Fortunately, only 9% of the 20% uninterested parties stated that they were completely not interested in space.

The main reasons listed by respondents for their interests were "to be a pioneer" (24%), "to see the earth from space" (15%) and "a life-long dream" (9%). They are useful implications for designing strategies