Richard Branson, the U.K. airline mogul who has joined with Burt Rutan to build spaceships for tourists, unveiled a mockup of SpaceShipTwo last week at the Wired NextFest event in New York City. The ship, as expected, is a larger version of SpaceShipOne. It's designed to carry six passengers and two pilots. It will be carried aloft to about 60,000 feet on a carrier named White Knight Two, then detach and rocket into space at about Mach 4. Virgin Galactic has also launched a spiffy new version of its Web site, with lots of new movies and information about the project. According to the site, flight testing of the prototype is expected to start next year. It was also reported last week that Branson is negotiating with British TV networks to develop a reality show where six contestants will compete for a spot on a ride into space. Branson's first commercial craft will be named the VSS (Virgin SpaceShip) Enterprise, and is expected to be ready to go in early 2009. Space tourists will undergo three days of pre-flight preparation. Seats will cost about $200,000 each.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/briefs/spaceshiptwo-gets-its-curtain-call