Branson Unveils Civilian Spaceship

British Billionaire, American Design Partner Show Off Plans For "SpaceShipTwo"

(AP)  Within a few years, a handful of rich tourists may be blasting into space in a craft that looks a little like a cross between the space shuttle and a corporate jet.

British billionaire Richard Branson and aerospace designer Burt Rutan unveiled a model Wednesday of SpaceShipTwo, the vehicle they hope will be able to take passengers on suborbital joy rides, sheerly for the fun of it, with test flights beginning as soon as this year.

"Breathtakingly beautiful," was Branson's assessment of the ship, which is now under construction at a hangar in the Mojave Desert.

Speaking to reporters at the American Museum of Natural History, the pair also showed off a model of the big, four-engine jet that will help launch the craft into space.

The twin-fuselage airplane, called the White Knight Two, will carry SpaceShipTwo high into the sky beneath a single 140-foot wing.

The spacecraft would then separate from the plane and rocket into suborbital space, where as many as six passengers and two crew members could unbuckle themselves and experience weightlessness and an unparalleled view before gliding back to Earth.

Passengers would get about 4½ minutes of zero-gravity time, floating about a ship roughly the size of a Falcon 900 executive jet, before returning to their seats.

Will Whitehorn, president of Branson's space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, insisted the project is no pipe dream; construction on the White Knight Two is already more than 70 percent complete. SpaceShipTwo is about 60 percent complete, and the company and Rutan's aerospace outfit, Scaled Composites, hope to begin test flights this summer.

About 200 prospective passengers from 30 countries have made reservations, shelling out $200,000 apiece. Many were in attendance for Wednesday's presentation, including Ken Baxter, 58, of Las Vegas.

"You can't even imagine my excitement," said Baxter after seeing the models. Baxter, a real estate marketing executive, said he recently completed preflight training that included being subjected to extreme g-forces in a whirling centrifuge, and hopes to be in space in a year.

"Yeah, I'm scared," he acknowledged. "But this is about realizing a childhood dream. Space travel is something I've been thinking about since I read Jules Verne as a kid."

The primary job for the designers will be confirming that the pair of experimental vehicles are safe.

Questions about their safety were highlighted last July, when the spacecraft's engine exploded during a routine ground test.

Three people died in the accident. California occupational safety inspectors fined Scaled Composites $25,870. Investigators and the company's engineers are still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.

"We don't know yet exactly what caused it," Rutan said. He added that there was "no question" that the accident is causing a delay in the engine's development, but did not comment on whether that would disrupt plans for test flights.

Rutan acknowledged that the project has risks, but said that when the spacecraft starts flying paying passengers, it will be at least as safe as the early airlines were in the 1920s.

That era was not a particularly safe time for air travel, by modern standards, but Rutan said it would be "hundreds of times safer" than government-funded space flight has been to date.

Branson said he has already reserved seats on one of the early flights for his elderly mother and father.

The pair and other Scaled engineers attending Wednesday's news conference said they would keep many of the technical details of their launching system secret, but they offered a few facts about the craft.

White Knight Two will have about the same wingspan of a Boeing B-29 Superfortress, but, in contrast to the World War II bomber, both it and SpaceShipTwo are being built entirely from ultra-light composite materials. Virgin Galactic showed video of workers lifting big sections of the spacecraft with little effort, as if they were made of light plastic.

The spacecraft looks decidedly different from its predecessor, SpaceShipOne, which earned Rutan's team a $10 million prize in 2004 by becoming the first privately built, manned rocket ship to fly into space twice in a span of two weeks.

SpaceShipOne was smaller, with just three seats, and looked remarkably like something Flash Gordon would have flown.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is much larger and incorporates notable design changes, including the relocation of its wings from the top to the bottom of its fuselage.

[godseyesore-2009]

runningralph, if YOU were starving and thought the advances of technology (whenever) would provide you a way out, YOU would be dead. THINK, man!

[chipper777]

Listen up you fort worth UFO watchers. There are very few UFO''s that get to earth. Fact is our Airforce has Flying Saucers and it is no longer a secret or any big deal any more! Oregon Public Broadcasting TV station had hour long program and showed many flying ships which airforce said was testing. Some very small and used to monitor places, others big to excell in space travel, which are made by Lockheed and Boeing corporations in Seattle. I have personally seen one several years ago and know for a fact that they exist. No big deal any more. But, that asteroid which is coming very close to earth at 330,000 miles away could by chance one day destroy our moon. What would that do to us on earth if we lost our moon? If you have ideas on that let me know! Also go to a site which says Airforce testing flying saucer to send to moon in near future. you will see first hand a flying saucer that is about 30 feet in diameter and is gray color. It has one of our american scientists in front of it testing the electronics. But isn''t it wonderful that man has developed flying machines so magnificient that thrush through the air? Wow!

[chipper777]

This concept is wonderful and should go forward. God created billions of galaxies and planets in each galaxy which someday can be seen and loved by all people, And, someday space flight will be extremely cheap too, and in time man will also figure out ways to help those in need too. Progression is a possitive and good thing, as well as the law of consecration will be greater in the future too.

The Concorde was quite the achievement and no doubt 20 or so years ahead of it''s time..with the way governments and celebrities burn their money, they would have sold many planes and still be in biz..

Anyway, kudos to Branson as at least he''s not sitting around counting his dough.....

The Concorde was quite the achievement and no doubt 20 or so years ahead of it''s time..with the way governments and celebrities burn their money, they would have sold many planes and still be in biz..

Anyway, kudos to Branson as at least he''s not sitting around counting his dough.....

[runningralph]

Technology is the right thing on which to spend money. The problem with spending money on starving people is next year there will be more of them.

[hypnotoad72]

Yes, I remember the Concorde. That is the airplane that had a 20 year safety success record and then died with one accident.

Posted by barbaraf4
-----

Was not the plane decommissioned in the early 2000s due to exorbitant fuel costs?

[toolmangler-2009]

Rutan is another word for ''wright''. you do remember what a couple of brothers by that name accomplished, don''t you?

[barbaraf4]

"It will work or it will end up like the Concorde.
Does anyone remember the Concorde?"
Posted by mediapreachr
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, I remember the Concorde. That is the airplane that had a 20 year safety success record and then died with one accident.

[mediapreachr]

It will work or it will end up like the Concorde.
Does anyone remember the Concorde?

[middleman8]

Sure another toy for the idle rich. I have decided i aren''t going to worry bout the viermont enemor as long as the rich us the viremont for a play ground.

[caldwellptr]

"Aren''''t there hundreds of other better things he could be spending all that money on besides a fun amusement ride?
Posted by olebd at 08:58 AM : Jan 24, 2008"

And aren''t there hundreds of other better things we all could be spending our time on besides fun commentary?

[fstop100]

I missed the point. To help feed the starving maybe?

[sevenveils]

Starship One''s stability was a major concern. Starship two looks so similar I can''t wait to hear how the bugs were worked out.

Branson sees this as a new untapped market, big profits. Rutan sees this venture as ushering in a new era of travel. With a few changes here and there, this could be the new beginning of intercontinental travel; Los Angeles to London England in under 2 hours.

[actornaught]

This will probably do some kind of spiral upward and down again.

I want to know if it flew a straight course, how far would it go?

btw, the fuel is the combination of nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and rubber. Just hope that you don''t get tired while your high....

[me_nz]

Branson or should I say Sir Richard has said he would commit revenues from his transportation group to anti greenhouse gas projects and offered a $25 million prize for 1 specific project. However until those funds have been appropriated and some concrete results to reduce greenhouse emissions produced then a frivolous joy riding venture for a wealthy elite which pumps large amounts of needless CO2 etc into the upper atmosphere can not be morally justified. And let''s see $200,000 for 5 minutes of weightlessness for some bored overindulged overpaid celebrity. $200,000 would save maybe 1000 children who are currently dying at a rate of 1 every 17 seconds from drinking dirty contaminated water. It would give about 280 fathers or mothers with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa a year of life with their families that is 147,168,000 minutes of life but who cares about that right.

[aaabee-2009]

You posters, LOL, sound like the detractors for the Ford''s cars, the Wrights aeroplanes, the first rockets.
This guy chooses to use his money for something other than padding his lifestyle with his own wants; he is getting humans out into the next frontier: space. It is exciting, dangerous, innovative, like all new frontiers. I applaud his efforts and cheer him on!

"Theories have four stages of acceptance:
i) this is worthless nonsense;
ii) this is an interesting, but perverse, point of view.
iii) this is true but quite unimportant.
iv) I always said so."

Quote: - J.B.S. Haldane, 1963 (taken from http://amasci.com/freenrg/arrhenus.html)

[barbaraf4]

"Engine exploded and they don''''t know what caused it. Yet construction continues. $200,000 to go up in space in a flying tomb doesn''''t sound like much of a bargain to me." Posted by oeangus
~~~~~~~~~~
Everything going into space is a flying tomb, you just don''t know what will trigger the catastrophe.

As for not knowing what caused the engine to explode but still going forward anyway. This sounds like they recruited NASA employees.

[olebd]

Aren''t there hundreds of other better things he could be spending all that money on besides a fun amusement ride?

[co2max]

Until they go orbital in this thing, not many are going to think it''s worth the trip. 4.5 min of microgravity is great, but it''s still just a ballistic flight--FUN, but not worth $200k.
On another front, I really have to wonder about that twin-fuselage design. Good luck landing that thing!