Sir Richard Branson unveils his mothership
Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson yesterday unveiled the carrier aircraft which will be used to launch space tourists in an eight-person rocket.
It is hoped the mothership WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) will ferry SpaceShipTwo and thousands of private astronauts on sub-orbital space flights.
Branson welcomed engineers, dignitaries and space enthusiasts to the hangar in the Mojave Desert for the unveiling of what will be the key to success for Virgin Galactic.
Christened "Eve" after Branson's own mother, the mothership features four jet engines, a 140-foot wingspan and is the world’s largest all carbon composite aircraft.
WK2 is designed to cradle a passenger rocket releasing it at 48,000 feet from where it will fire its hybrid rocket and climb to 62 miles above Earth.
A series of important test flights will begin later in the year before the first customers who have paid £100,000 each will be able to experience zero gravity on SpaceShipTwo.
Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic said: "The rollout of WhiteKnightTwo takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level.
"It continues to provide tangible evidence that this most ambitious of projects is not only for real but is making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation."
LINKS
blog comments powered by Disqus
