Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan's spacecraft firm, Virgin Galactic, said today that it is unveiling its first manned, commercial spacecraft today in Mojave, the SpaceShipTwo (SS2). The firm--the offspring of SpaceshipOne, the first private spacecraft to reach space--said it will unveil the SpaceShipTwo after dark today at the Mojave Air and Spaceport. Virgin Galactic is a joint venture of the Virgin Group and Mojave-based Scaled Composites, the design firm run by aerospace designer Burt Rutan. According to Virgin Galactic, the combination of SpaceShipTwo and mothership VMS Eve (WhiteKnightTwo) will be part of a service it hopes to start, launching daily space tourism flights from New Mexico--once it meets regulatory requirements. SpaceshipOne was the first private vehicle in space, and won the $10M Ansari X-Prize in 2004.
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Monday, December 7, 2009Virgin Galactic Unveiling Spaceship
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