Virgin Galactic rolls out space tourism aircraft

by Rich Bowden - Jul 28 2008, 21:53

The head of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, took the next step towards commercial space tourism this week when he unveiled a space jet that will ferry paying passengers on sub-orbital flights.

The craft, known as the WhiteKnightTwo "Eve", is the world's largest all-carbon composite aircraft, and will act as a mothership that will launch a spaceship in mid-air carrying two crew members and six passengers.

The latest rollout, which took place in a hangar in the Mojave Desert, was attended by a large crowd of media, space enthusiasts and engineers and is the next stage in the Virgin company's aim to create the world's first private space access system. 

"The rollout of WhiteKnightTwo takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this most ambitious of projects is not only for real but is making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation," beamed Branson.

The jet's 140-foot wingspan is similar in length to that of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress and its all-carbon composite structure, manufactured by the pioneering aviation company Scaled Composites, is a revolutionary design.

Speaking at the presentation, head of Scaled Composites Burt Rutan told the media, "WhiteKnightTwo represents the apogee of the application of carbon composites to aerospace and all of us at Scaled are tremendously excited at the capabilities of theMothership for SpaceShipTwo."

Describing the business venture with Virgin, he added: "I believe the vehicle will be developed and sold for a variety of launch applications beyond the initial requirements of our launch customer, Virgin Galactic.

"We have set up a new business jointly with Virgin, The Spaceship Company (TSC), to develop these vehicles and we very much hope that its efficiency will herald a wake up call to the aerospace industry and the necessity of using new materials and technologies in the future."

The WhiteKnightTwo faces significant testing and the accompanying SpaceShipTwo needs to be completed before passengers, who are likely to pay an estimated $200,000 USD each, can embark on its inaugural space flights.

In terms of time scale, Branson said SpaceShipTwo was 70 percent complete and he expected to see it make its maiden flight in around 18 months.

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