The Spaceship Company (TSC), the Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites joint venture building Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane, received a $290,000 incentive check from Southern California Edison for designing a final integration, assembly and test hangar — FAITH, for short — in Mojave, Calif., that exceeds the state’s energy-efficiency standards, according to a March 12 press release.
The 6,300-square-meter-facility, used primarily for the final assembly, integration and testing of the TSC vehicle, exceeds California’s Title 24 Energy Efficiency Standards by 55 percent in part by incorporating a heat pump system, skylights, reflective flooring and energy-efficient lighting. The company expects to save over 700,000 kilowatt hours of energy annually as a result of the facility’s environmentally friendly design, according to the press release.
“FAITH’s energy efficient design demonstrates Virgin Galactic’s continued investment in sustainable building designs. We employ innovative and sustainable practices in the design or commissioning of many of our facilities, such as TSC’s existing fabrication and sub-assembly facility in Mojave, the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space terminal at Spaceport America in New Mexico and the new Virgin Galactic office in Las Cruces, New Mexico,” George Whitesides, president and chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic and the Spaceship Company, said in a statement.
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