West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice held a news conference on Friday along with Virgin Airlines founder
Sir Richard Branson to announce a partnership to bring the Virgin Hyperloop Certification Center to Tucker County in West Virginia.
Hyperloop is a theoretical transportation system originally proposed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. The idea was to create a high-speed transportation system to send a podlike capsule levitating along a rail inside a low-pressure tube at speeds of more than 600 miles per hour.
The proposal sparked a wave of companies and innovators working to make this technology a reality, with Virgin Hyperloop being one of the biggest investors. A fully functional hyperloop system is still a long way from coming to fruition, but this certification center will help Virgin move closer to realizing that dream.