--- title: Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Will Resume Test Flights This Year description: After a deadly crash last year canonical: https://time.com/3693586/virgin-galactic-test-flights/ author: Rachel Janik article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-03T16:20:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:06:05.836Z article:section: Science og:title: Virgin Galactic Will Resume Test Flights This Year og:description: After a deadly crash last year og:url: https://time.com/3693586/virgin-galactic-test-flights/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ceeb786524a1c65/69877d65e20a877ceda84e6c/virgin-galactic-richard-branson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: British billionaire Richard Branson pose og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Virgin Galactic Will Resume Test Flights This Year twitter:description: After a deadly crash last year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ceeb786524a1c65/69877d65e20a877ceda84e6c/virgin-galactic-richard-branson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Virgin Galactic Will Resume Test Flights This Year > Sponsored content. 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Adrian Dennis—AFP/Getty Images by [Rachel Janik](https://time.com/author/rachel-janik/) ## Rachel Janik Feb 3, 2015 4:20 PM UTC The space tourism company Virgin Galactic is [set to resume test flights this year](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/25d1cab6e71c4fd5b5a146b7d80c1334/virgin-galactic-gets-back-track-toward-space-tourism) after a deadly crash last year, its CEO said, defying expectations that it wouldn’t be ready to take flight again until at least 2016. “I really think we’re turning the corner,” CEO George Whitesides told the Associated Press. “We’ve gone through one of the toughest things a company can go through and we’re still standing, and now we’re really moving forward with pace.” The company, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, is completing construction of a new shuttle after one broke apart during a test flight in October, leaving one pilot dead. The accident was the most recent in a long line of setbacks. Successful in-flight testing is one of the company’s last major obstacles to the elusive of commercial space travel. **MORE:** What Richard Branson Can Learn From the Virgin Galactic Disaster \[[_AP_](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/25d1cab6e71c4fd5b5a146b7d80c1334/virgin-galactic-gets-back-track-toward-space-tourism)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3693586/virgin-galactic-test-flights/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3693586/virgin-galactic-test-flights/"},"headline":"Virgin Galactic Will Resume Test Flights This Year","datePublished":"2015-02-03T16:20:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:06:05.836Z","description":"After a deadly crash last year","url":"https://time.com/3693586/virgin-galactic-test-flights/","keywords":["space travel","Virgin Galactic","SpaceX"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ceeb786524a1c65/69877d65e20a877ceda84e6c/virgin-galactic-richard-branson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Janik","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-janik/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4ceeb786524a1c65/69877d65e20a877ceda84e6c/virgin-galactic-richard-branson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"British billionaire Richard Branson pose","caption":"British billionaire Richard Branson pose","creditText":"Adrian Dennis—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space-travel/","name":"space travel"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3693586/virgin-galactic-test-flights/","name":"Virgin Galactic Will Resume Test Flights This Year"}}]}] ```