Virgin Galactic Unveils Space Travel Airliner

January 24th, 2008

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.

For people who have been everywhere on Earth, it may be soon that they can go beyond it. Dreaming of space flight while sipping on the ports from their wine of the month clubs world travelers are closer than ever to leaving the atmosphere for a trip out of this world.

The SpaceShipTwo spacecraft (VIDEO) 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.

“2008 really will be the year of the spaceship,” said British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, who unveiled a 1/16th-scale model of the new spacecraft here 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.”

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. The space tourism firm plans to eventual launch flights out of a terminal at New Mexico’s Spaceport America, with additional trips through the aurora borealis to be staged from Kiruna, Sweden.

“It’s fantastic,” said British advertising executive Trevor Beattie, one of the some 100 Virgin Galactic ticket holders onhand for the unveiling. “I want to go now…with each milestone, it’s getting closer and closer.”

Space.com gives more detail on the new Space Plane as well as more on the entire scope of personal space travel.