Virgin Galactic Spaceliner launched

Sir Richard Branson unveils Virgin Galactic rocket plane the SpaceShip Two to the world in Mojave, California, at the VIP unveiling included California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson who both christened the spaceliner Virgin SpaceShip (VSS) Enterprise. After five years in top secret construction, this will be his first commercial spacecraft, with a long list of people already paid up to go on it when testing is completed in the next 18 months.

The craft created by Burt Rutan a famed aviation designer is built form lightweight carbon composite materials and is powered by a hybrid rocket motor. The SpaceShip Two will be carried up to 50,000 by the White Knight and then will travel 65 miles by its own rockets above the Earth’s surface. The flight will last approximately two hours and passengers will also experience six minutes of weightlessness during this time. The SpaceShip Two is able to hold six passengers and two crew, already 300 people have reportedly signed up at a cost of about £121,000.

Sir Richard Branson has said, “It’s incredible to think only 450 people have ever been into space; that’s including all the Russians, all the Chinese and all the Americans put together,” and “We should be able to enable with our new commercial spaceship company, Virgin Galactic, to take maybe 1,000 people and make them into ‘astronauts’ in the 12 months once we start.”

Although there will be competitors Sir Richard Branson is confident that they will be first to hit the market dependant on any problems that may arise in testing, which means flights into space will be more of the norm over the next decade, although far more expensive than cheap flights around the world.

Picture Courtesy of IrishFireside