SpaceShipTwo - to Boldly go Where Few Tourists Have Gone Before
The duo of Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic (space tourism promoter) and Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites (Ansari X Prize winner) introduced a pair of carbon composite sub-orbital spacecraft yesterday. The plastic planes were shown at a press conference January 23 2008 at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC.
Starting in about 2010, astronaut-wannabes will travel to Spaceport America in NM. After some training and a small fee, they will board SpaceShipTwo to be carried aloft by the larger White Knight Two. SpaceShipTwo will reach an altutude of about 100 Km and passengers will experience about 6 minutes of weightlessness.
At a ticket price of only $200,000, a trip on SpaceShipTwo is a lot cheaper than the $30,000,000 charged by Space Adventures, but the later includes a trip to the International Space Station and some meals.
Sir Richard also used the unveiling to chat up other business opportunities, such as orbital travel, space hotels, space tourism ships going around the moon, as well as populating other planets…with that last item sounding a bit space-cadetish.
Virgin Galactic Heralds ‘The Year of The Spaceship’ With The Unveiling of The Designs of SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two - Virgin Galactic press release, January 23 2008
