SpaceShipTwo will be the first commercial spaceship ever built. Funded by U.K. billionaire Richard Branson, it has been built with the support of famed aviation designer Burt Rutan.
Branson has already spent $200 million out of $450 million budget.
SpaceShipTwo is a replica of SpaceShipOne, first privately operated manned craft that completed the first privately funded human spaceflight on June 21, 2004.
But, at 60 feet long, it is double the size of SpaceShipOne, and can carry six passengers and two pilots.
The tests for the spaceship will start in the upcoming year. The flight, which will be two and a half hours long, will include some five minutes of weightlessness.
Virgin Galactic has already placed orders of three carrier planes and five spaceships with Spaceship Co., a joint venture between Virgin and Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Scaled Composites unit.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Ltd is gearing up to take the tourists to space.
After five years of construction, the company will take the wraps off its suborbital passenger spaceship in the Mojave Desert today.
Much awaited launch
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will unveil Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo model, with the first flight expected to take off from Spaceport America, New Mexico within the next few years.
Around 300 wealthy would-be astronauts, including singer Sarah Brightman, physicist Stephen Hawking, and X-Men director Bryan Singer, have already paid around $200,000 each and are eagerly waiting for the first glimpse of the spaceship.
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