First New Discovery Sport comes off the production lines at Halewood.

• First production car built in Halewood, UK, to be given to global partner Virgin Galactic to support operations base
• The latest model in the Land Rover line-up has created 250 new manufacturing jobs following a £200m investment in the Halewood plant
• Land Rover recently announced Galactic Discovery competition to send four winners to space as part of partnership with Virgin Galactic

The first production Discovery Sport has rolled off Land Rover’s production line in Halewood, UK. The car will now make its way to Virgin Galactic’s headquarters, to be used by the team as they continue to prepare for the launch of the world’s first commercial spaceline. 

The world’s most versatile and capable premium compact SUV, the Discovery Sport, is the first of the new Discovery family. It features 5+2 seating in a footprint no larger than existing 5-seat premium SUVs, as well as Land Rover’s class-leading capability. The launch marks another significant milestone in Jaguar Land Rover’s product offensive which will see the company deliver 50 significant product actions over the next five years.

During a ceremony at Land Rover’s Halewood plant, the first ever production vehicle was received by Stephen Attenborough, Commercial Director of Virgin Galactic, with whom Land Rover partnered with earlier this year. The vehicle will be used by the pioneering spaceflight company to support its operations in the UK, and is one of a number of vehicles Land Rover is providing as part of an ongoing global partnership between the British brands.

“It fills me with pride to have seen the first new Discovery Sport coming off the line here at our world-class Halewood production facility. We are now even more excited to hand the keys over to the crew at Virgin Galactic. The new car embodies Land Rover’s spirit of Above and Beyond, so it’s fitting that it will be used by a similarly pioneering company in Virgin Galactic,” said Murray Dietsch, Director of Land Rover Programmes.

The Halewood plant, which is already home to the company’s fastest selling model of all time – the Range Rover Evoque, has seen investment in the site more than double and workforce treble over the last four years with 4,750 people now employed at the site.

The impact of Discovery Sport has also been positively felt within the UK supply chain where £3.5bn in contracts have been awarded to 55 suppliers.

Land Rover revealed the new Discovery Sport through an online film shot at Spaceport America in New Mexico, USA, last month. The launch of the car was paired with the announcement of Land Rover’s Galactic Discovery competition, giving four friends the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to space with Virgin Galactic. 

Land Rover details what to expect on the Virgin Galactic space flight.

• New film provides breath-taking detail on space flights
• Detailed footage shows what budding astronauts will experience
• Land Rover is offering four friends the chance to win a space flight with Virgin Galactic

Land Rover has released exclusive new detail on what budding astronauts can expect to experience on a Virgin Galactic space flight.

The short film has been created as part of Land Rover's 'Galactic Discovery' competition, which offers four friends a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win a trip to space. Worth over US$1million, the top prize will see the winners take a one-week trip to the US, where they will undergo three days of training and preparation at the Foster + Partners designed Spaceport America in New Mexico, before taking a Mach 3.5 ride to space in Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, experiencing out of seat weightlessness and life changing views of planet Earth.

Gabi Whitfield, Global PR director for Land Rover said: "We knew the appetite for space travel would be huge around the world but also that this is still an area most people know very little about. We wanted to give our competition entrants as much detail as possible on the prize, to get them really excited about this once-in-a-lifetime experience”

The film shows footage of the test flights undertaken by Virgin Galactic to date, alongside CGI animation of the zero gravity experience. The voiceover provides a step by step account of the planned Virgin Galactic space experience from arrival at Virgin Galactic’s Gateway to Space facility at Spaceport America, to the Mach 3.5 vertical rocket ride into the black sky of space and the return to Earth.

Narration comes from Virgin Galactic’s Vice President of Operations, Mike Moses. He leads the team in all aspects of safe and successful space flight operations, including WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo vehicle processing, planning, training and flight crew operations. Mike came to VG after a distinguished career with NASA where amongst other things he chaired the Mission Management Team providing the ultimate space shuttle launch decision authority.

The film also shows Spaceport America in New Mexico, featuring the Norman Foster-designed Gateway to Space building which will become the home for Virgin Galactic space travel once commercial operations go live. This is the second film released in the last few weeks to showcase the facility, the other being the Land Rover Discovery Sport and competition launch film. Land Rover created this footage to bring the consumer one step closer to personal space travel, something anyone now has a chance to experience with Virgin Galactic through the incredible Galactic Discovery competition.

The exclusive ‘Winner Experience’ video can be seen here – www.landrover.com/gotospace