Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic recently got clearance for US flights, the company is working towards launching commercial space flights, and according to a recent report, Google is looking to buy into the company.
Sky News is reporting that Google are looking to purchase a stake in Virgin Galactic, and the two companies have apparently been in talks for months.
Google recently announced that they had purchased satellite imaging firm Skybox for $500 million, the company will be using the technology for Google Maps, and they are also looking to use Skybox’s expertise to produce their own satellites.
Google are looking to increase Internet access around the world, this will be done with solar drones and satellites, and the satellites are apparently why Google is interested in Virgin Galactic.
The new deal between the two companies will apparently have two parts, Google will make a small investment in the holding company of Virgin Galactic, which is rumored to be around $30 million.
As the second part of the deal, Google and Virgin Galactic will form a new company, and Google will invest hundreds of millions of dollars into this new company, Virgin Galactic will apparently put its technology that has been developed as part of its space tourism into the company.
The final details of the deal between Google and Virgin are not exactly clear, although it is rumored that the new company will have something to do with Google’s satellite project.
Source Sky News