Despite the rain, more than 400 notables gathered at Scaled Composites in the Mojave Desert to view the unveiling of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (SS2), the world's first manned commercial spaceship, and its mothership, VMS Eve (named after Sir Branson's mother) (WhiteKnightTwo) advancing a new era in commercial space flight. Daily space tourism flights are set to commence from Spaceport America in New Mexico after a test program and all required U.S. government licenses have been completed. In an interview with Fox News, Sir Branson stressed the safety factor, "After all," he said, "my kids are going to be on that first flight!"

Virgin founder, Sir Richard Branson and SpaceshipOne (SS1) designer, Burt Rutan, today revealed SS2 to the public for the first time since construction of the world’s first manned commercial spaceship began in 2007. SS2 has been designed to take many thousands of private citizen 'astronauts' into space.

Branson is spending an estimated $250 million to $400 million on his space venture. The company already has signed up more than 300 would-be spacefliers, including actress Victoria Principal, Hollywood director Bryan Singer and 90-year-old enviro-theorist James Lovelock, and Silvano Payne the publisher of SatNews, SatMagazine, and MilsatMagazine. Paralyzed cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who sampled zero-G two years ago, may eventually fly as well. The price for a three-day space tour package, including training, is $200,000.

The unveiling represents another major milestone in Virgin Galactic’s quest to develop the world’s first commercial space line providing private sector access to space using an environmentally benign launch system for people, payload and science.

The spaceship draws on the experience developed during the successful flights of SS1 in 2004, which won the Ansari X-Prize for completing the world’s first manned private space flights. The SS2 design will be refined and completed during an extensive test flying program to commence shortly, and it will be an entirely new vehicle capable of carrying up to six passenger astronauts and up to two pilot astronauts into space on a sub-orbital flight.

In the future, WK2 will carry SS2 to above 50,000 feet (16 kilometers) before the spaceship is dropped and fires the rocket motor to launch into space from that altitude. In honor of a long tradition of using the word Enterprise in the naming of Royal Navy, U.S. Navy, NASA vehicles and even science fiction spacecraft, Governor Schwarzenegger of California and Governor Richardson of New Mexico will today christen SS2 with the name Virgin Space Ship (VSS) ENTERPRISE. This represents not only an acknowledgement to that name’s honorable past but also looks to the future of the role of private enterprise in the development of the exploration, industrialization and human habitation of space.

WK2 is powered by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines, which are amongst the most powerful, economic and efficient commercial jet engines available making it a mould breaker in carbon efficiency. SS2 will be powered by a unique hybrid rocket motor, which is currently under development. The twin fuselage and central payload area configuration allow for easy access to WK2 and to the spaceship for passengers and crew; the design also aids operational efficiencies and turnaround times. The mothership has now also completed a year of rigorous and successful first phase flight testing prior to today’s attachment of SS2.

Commenting on the unveiling, Sir Richard Branson said, “This is truly a momentous day. The team has created not only a world first but also a work of art. The unveil of SS2 takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this ambitious project is not only moving rapidly, but also making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation.”

Burt Rutan, Founder of Scaled Composites added, “All of us at Scaled are tremendously excited by the capabilities of both the mothership and SS2. Today is the culmination of a dream that began many decades ago, was stimulated by Paul Allen’s funding of our X-Prize winning SS1 and then moved forward to commercial reality by Sir Richard and Virgin’s visionary investment in a new future for space transportation.”

SpaceShipTwo was unveiled after darkness has fallen over the Mojave Desert and all of the guests will be protected from the desert cold by designer space jackets supplied by PUMA. Finally, to close off the celebrations, all the guests will have the opportunity to view the stunning night skies using specialist telescopes supplied by Ron Dantowitz of the Clay Observatory, whose unique tracking cameras followed SS1 into space during the epic flights of 2004. (Photos above: credit, Mark Greenberg)


The publisher of SatNews, SatMagazine, MilsatMagazine, Silvano Payne, enjoys a few words with Sir Richard Branson during the celeb-filled event in the Mojave Desert. Silvano also was able to chat with Burt Rutan, the designer of SpaceShipOne as well as the founder of Scaled Composites.