December 12th, 2009 by admin

Virgin Galactic unveiled the world’s first commercial tourist spacecraft, VSS Enterprise (Virgin Space Ship), on December 7. Also known as SpaceShipTwo, the spaceship was attached to its mother ship during its debut.Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan, the designer of SpaceShipOne

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Virgin Galactic unveiled the world’s first commercial tourist spacecraft, VSS Enterprise (Virgin Space Ship), on December 7. Also known as SpaceShipTwo, the spaceship was attached to its mother ship during its debut.

Sir Richard Branson and Burt Rutan, the designer of SpaceShipOne (SS1), were on hand at the presentation at the Mojave Air and Space Port. Rutan designed the SS1 spacecraft using the same fuselage as VMS Eve, SS1’s mother ship.

Fight testing is expected to start early in 2010. Following successful testing and government licensing, passenger flights could begin as early as 2011 from Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport America in New Mexico. The space ship can take up to six private astronauts per trip.

Price for sub-orbit flights? Tickets are about 0,000 for a training program and a blast into space on the Enterprise. Both Branson and Rutan are confident that prices will decrease, following the development of similar new technology.

Fleet production will begin after the flight testing is complete. Branson and Rutan have entered into a joint venture with The Spaceship Company. Together, they will produce the WhiteKnightTwo mother ships and the SpaceShipTwo spacecrafts in order to meet the expected demand for space travel. It is expected that 40-50 spaceships will need to be built to accommodate the astronauts.

SS1 was successfully launched in 2004 and won the Ansari X-Prize for the world’s first manned private space flights.