Virgin Galactic makes donation
Civic leaders from Lancaster and Palmdale shared thanks to Mojave-based Virgin Galactic for the spaceflight firm’s assistance in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among other partnerships with the cities, Virgin Galactic donated $25,000 worth of personal protection equipment to each city to support front-line workers helping the community deal with the virus and control its spread.
Since the start of the crisis three months ago, the spaceflight firm has helped to source protective equipment for the community.
The cities, in turn, donated some of the gear to the Antelope Valley Community
Emergency Response Team (CERT). AV CERT supports local area disaster preparedness and response operations.
“This generous donation by Virgin Galactic shows
their commitment to the Antelope Valley community and will help us in our current efforts and to be well prepared if there is a second wave of cases,” Palmdale Mayor Steve Hofbauer said.
Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris thanked Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides for his partnership with the city.
“George’s desire to help the community also resulted in the AV Task Force being able to produce results in several areas. I could not be more proud,” he said.
In addition to direct donations, Virgin Galactic has also worked to support healthcare workers through a public-private task force including Antelope Valley Hospital, the city of Lancaster, Antelope Valley College, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, The Spaceship Company and other aerospace firms.
Formed at the start of the pandemic, this task force looked to their skills from aerospace research and industry could be applied to address concerns about inadequate supplies of medical equipment and protective gear for a predicted surge of COVID-19 patients.
The team produced oxygen hoods for patients with minor breathing problems by using oxygen rich pressure to open their lungs and avoiding the need for ventilators.
They also designed protective enclosures for use in treating patients safely and tapped into the expertise of life support for pilots to address the issue of supplying oxygen to patients at a field hospital at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.
“Palmdale has been proud to be a collaborator since the beginning of this pandemic,” Palmdale City Manager J.J. Murphy said. “The sharing between all the agencies in the AV since this started has been remarkable.”