Virgin Galactic Tourist Spaceship Design Unveiled in New York
Future thrill-seekers will ride a sleek spacecraft berthed under a massive, twin-boom mothership to the fringe of space in a design unveiled Wednesday by Virgin Galactic.The SpaceShipTwo spacecraft and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier will begin initial tests this summer to shakedown the novel spaceflight system designed by aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan and his firm Scaled Composites.
"Two thousand and eight really will be the year of the spaceship," British entrepreneur Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, said as he unveiled a 1/16th-scale model of the new spacecraft at the American Museum of Natural History. "We're truly excited about our new system and what our new system will be able to do."
Flights will last about two hours, with 4.5 minutes of weightlessness when the 60-foot SpaceShipTwo reaches an altitude of about 68 miles. WhiteKnightTwo carries four engines and a wingspan of about 140 feet (42 meters), rivaling a B-29 bomber, and is built to handle unmanned rockets capable of launching small satellites into orbit, Virgin Galactic officials said.Virgin Galactic is offering tickets aboard SpaceShipTwo spaceliners for an initial price of about $200,000, though Branson said the cost is expected to drop after the first five years of operations.
Future thrill-seekers will ride a sleek spacecraft berthed under a massive, twin-boom mothership to the fringe of space in a design unveiled Wednesday by Virgin Galactic.The SpaceShipTwo spacecraft and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier will begin initial tests this summer to shakedown the novel spaceflight system designed by aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan and his firm Scaled Composites.
"Two thousand and eight really will be the year of the spaceship," British entrepreneur Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, said as he unveiled a 1/16th-scale model of the new spacecraft at the American Museum of Natural History. "We're truly excited about our new system and what our new system will be able to do."
Flights will last about two hours, with 4.5 minutes of weightlessness when the 60-foot SpaceShipTwo reaches an altitude of about 68 miles. WhiteKnightTwo carries four engines and a wingspan of about 140 feet (42 meters), rivaling a B-29 bomber, and is built to handle unmanned rockets capable of launching small satellites into orbit, Virgin Galactic officials said.Virgin Galactic is offering tickets aboard SpaceShipTwo spaceliners for an initial price of about $200,000, though Branson said the cost is expected to drop after the first five years of operations.Gotta have your bread up to space travel.
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