Branson, Rutan to unveil Mothership today - Monday!

Aerospace engineers have been beavering away in a Mojave Desert hangar for four years, fashioning a commercial spaceship called 'White Knight 2' and it is due for rollout on Monday.

This piece of the article I found interesting.

Virgin Galactic already has lofty plans for White Knight Two besides space tourism. Company executives envision the aircraft can be used as a launcher of small satellites into low Earth orbit. With the proper permits, the craft can also be adapted to fight wildfires or be used as an emergency rescue vehicle.

Source:
edition.cnn.com...

BTW: Is this where Steve Fosset disapeared?

Yes they did and here it is!


Sorry its from a camera phone.

theres also a video about it:
www.telegraph.co.uk...

all flights are fully booked already? it would be interesting to know how much you need to pay for such a trip!

The cost is around $200,000 dollars as of now.

But all flights are not booked there are 200 people who have made down payments.

But the cost will go down after a few yrs.

[edit on 7/29/2008 by Prove_it]

Nice photo Prove_it! Not bad for a camera phone - you were there right?

2 Kiwis have booked their flights, $250,000 at the time of booking (I'm not one I hasten to add!

(BTW you didn't happen to spot Steve Fosset in the crowd didja?)

Branson's mum Eve is on the first one I believe - hence the ships name!
H

The first flight will be Branson his son,wife and Burt.
Atleast thats what he said today at the rollout.

After all the test flights are complete.

Yes i was there i work at Scaled Composites.

the costs will go down in a few years, yes, and one day all this will be a normal way of transportation as the aeroplanes are today!

Originally posted by Havalon
(BTW you didn't happen to spot Steve Fosset in the crowd didja?)

H

(hm, he could have been on one of the testflights :@@

[edit on 29-7-2008 by jonslostgolfer]

Burt Rutan is my hero. I would love to work for Scaled Composites. I'm envious