Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic unveiled the new SpaceShipTwo, the follow-on to the SpaceShipOne which won the $10,000,000 Ansari X-Prize. After several rounds of test flights, the new spacecraft should begin suborbital flights sometime in 2011.
The SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers and two crewmembers. At the top of their parabolic flight, passengers will be able to leave their seats and experience the weightlessness of microgravity. Richard Branson stated that over 300 people have deposits totaling $40 million for tickets for suborbital flights.
The maiden flight of the SpaceShipTwo is scheduled for early next year. The spacecraft is designed to fly just above the Kármán line the generally recogized boundary of space, though the United States government has no official standard due to security reasons.
The founder of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, and the designer of SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, Burt Rutan, will be among the first passengers when the SpaceShipTwo flies its first commercial passenger flight some 18 months from now.
The SS2 was christened the VSS Enterprise by New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The SS2 was built out at Burt Rutan's Scaled Composite plant in the Mojave desert north of LA. The SS2 will begin flights from the new spaceport, Spaceport America, being built near Alamogordo, New Mexico.
For more on this story here are some links to news media articles:
Branson unveils Virgin Galactic spaceliner Space Daily
Spaceship debut causes chills MSNBC
Rutan and Branson make a giant leap for space tourism Los Angeles Times
Virgin Galactic website
The above photo and the first 3 photos below are courtesy of Virgin Galactic. The last photo below is courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.