Virgin Galactic aircraft unveiled

Richard Branson has unveiled the Virgin Galactic Mothership for his space tourism business in a hangar in the Mojave Desert, California. The aircraft (a White Knight 2 type aircraft, now named Eve after Branson’s mother) will carry a second craft (named SpaceShip 2) up to a height of around 50,000 feet. Once at this height, SpaceShip 2 will be released and the booster engines will ignite, pushing the craft, and the passengers who have each paid in the region of £100,00 for the flight, into space at an altitude of 360,000 feet, where they will experience zero gravity.

The 2 aircraft are being built by Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composite company at Mojave airfield, now named Mojave Spaceport, California. Having been there myself and seen the aircraft that Scaled Composites build I can safely say that they are truly unique. The odd shaped, coupled with the materials that are used reflect Rutan’s truly innovative style and designs.

More details and some video footage from the unveiling can be seen at the BBC News website here.