Virgin Galactic Mothership Unveiled by Branson (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Scroll down for photos and video.

From the AP:

MOJAVE, Calif. - Virgin Galactic is giving the world a glimpse of its secret space tourism program. Sir Richard Branson's space company Monday trotted out the mothership aircraft that will launch a still-to-be-built spaceship out of the atmosphere. The mothership is a white, four-engine plane with room in the middle where the spacecraft will go.

The early morning rollout in California's Mojave desert came four years after SpaceShipOne became the first private manned rocket to reach space. Now the White Knight Two aircraft being shown today is due to undergo flight tests this fall.

More than 250 customers have paid $200,000 or put down a deposit for the chance to be one of Virgin Galactic's first space tourists. A date for the first launch has yet to be announced.

CrunchGear liveblogged the event and has photos of the White Knight 2. View them --and a promotional video from Virgin Galactic-- below.

Video:

Comments

[robbor]

i think the ones who can afford such a ride have a large hand in the state of things on the planet right now. when they reach the fringes of the atmosphere where space begins, perhaps they should just keep going and going and going so that we who have our feet on the ground can begin to return the planet back to its equilibrium.

[Oilygarch]

Would they all be as slender and sexy-looking as the avatars doing the modeling? Or would the $200,000 15-minute-Astronaut Program include a fitness program that would slenderize most fat-cats so they could at least fit in their seats for the ''mission''?

I also hope they donate at least 10% of the proceeds to charity. ;-)

[palealien]

As much as I love aerospace flight and aviation pioneering, it seems that until we discover a power as great and abundant as wind against sail, and as durable as wood against water, we're not goin' anywhere.

[Destin]

I agree with your post. You definitely got that assessment right, that we need something common if we're ever gonna seriously go out in space and visit the moon, let alone other planets. Yes, we can send things out, but often we won't ever get it back. That's critical for manned exploration, unless people sign up for one way trips and become the first settlers of whatever they arrive on.

I applaud tho, people for trying, like Branson and the others. What's sad, is that it seems NASA has stopped trying. NASA is even outsourcing it's next space vehicle. While, on the one hand it's good to have international cooperation, but it's bad when this other smaller country did it all with no help and input from US. I figure with the way the Japanese have been going, they might be the early space pioneers in the near feasible future.

But alas, for now, we have to dream and use these pop-gun style approaches to get the ball rolling. Frustrating, but a necessary evil I suppose. I'm just upset that the 40 years since we put the man on the moon, have been largely squandered with nothing to show for it. Shuttle has been around some 27 years now, and we're just now building our first space station with it. Talk about foot dragging.

[Oilygarch]

China, our most favored nation, has a Space Program. GE Astro-Space Division used to launch many a satellite through its Long-March Rocket Systems.

Pure capitalism says that competition is healthy.

Maybe if China took over space flight, these flights would only cost $50,000 per person? ;-)

Just a fleeting thought: How does this tie-in to World Hunger?

[mawrm]

Just a correction - the Space Station has been in operation for over 10 years and it actually near completion, albeit a much smaller than was originally envisioned. NASA is hurting in part due to decades of poor leadership from the White House. When you have W announce a "bold" Moon and Mar exploration agenda yet refuse to significantly increase NASA's budget to accomodate this ambitious agenda, then you have the makings of a disaster. BTW, NASA gets 0.6% of the National Budget - to fly shuttle, operate ISS, do mars exploration, earth observation science and a host of other programs. And what happens is W leaves office, NASA eventually ends up with egg on the face because it tried to do something with impossible cost and schedule constraints (meanwhile the military gets to play with billions to build a ground-based missile defense system, the modern equivalent of the Magninot line). The Air Force has fielded 5 NEW fighter/bomber aircraft (and even RETIRED one - the F-117) in the time that NASA has been solely reliant on the Shuttle System.

[sleek]

Great. Just what the world needs right now, rich fat-cats giving the rest of the world a BIG MIDDLE FINGER boring holes in the sky with COMPLETELY useless flights to nowhere.

[FerrisValyn]

Actually, no it won't be hurting the atmosphere, and the reality is that space development can help the rest of the world

[Oilygarch]

What might be a legitimate measure of Return on Investment (ROI) for the amount spent thus far?

[CaptainVideo]

The empirical evidence on the causes of long-term economic growth show that it is technological progress that is the main driving force behind such growth. The people who take these trips are not only doing something for their own pleasure, but, by funding important technological progress, are greatly benefitting society. Only people devoid of vision think that technological progress is useless. If we had listened to such people, mankind would still be living in caves.

"Why are these people doing such COMPLETELY useless things as finding ways to fasten sharpened stones to sticks?"

[Topfeeder]

Richard Branson is certainly living a fun and exciting life. I'm a little jealous.

[gcallaghan]

Along with amature climbers atop Everest and thrill-diving with sharks, chalk space tourism up as a fad that'll end as soon as inevitable disaster claims its first victims. I doubt Branson sunk much of his own money into Virgin Galactic because of that.

[cjohnathan]

I'll bet you're fun on a date, buzz-kill.

[gcallaghan]

If I may say so myself, all the intellectual stimulation of Bluto Blutarsky blended with the humor of dr. jack kevorkian

[FerrisValyn]

then you'd be wrong - the market studies of Space tourism are quite impressive (which happened before the 04 flight of SS1).

As for betting on it, well Branson's bet more than money on it - he's going to be one of the first riders, so he's betting his life on it

[CaptainVideo]

The deaths from people attempting to climb Mount Everest sure have not kept other people from doing it.

[Oilygarch]

-& people keep on bungee-jumping 'till the cows come home.

[paperairplane]

This is AMAZING. If only it weren't so expensive to go! But before I leave this world, ladies and gents, I am going to leave this planet.

[Oilygarch]

World = Planet?

[satyriasis]

If governments have technical problems with their spacecraft I imagine that Branson's will fall apart at the seams once it's in orbit. The media will go berserk. Expect Virgin's stock price to plummet. Sell now. You read it here first.

[MajorKong]

It won't get anywhere near orbit. It's strictly a suborbital flight. The Air Force was doing this with the X-15 back in 1960.

[PuppaX]

Is that a joke? Are you really trying to make an argument that if governmental agencies screw something up, then private enterprise absolutely will?

[dawp]

this suborbital, i suspect orbital is still years away.

[FerrisValyn]

Consider the SpaceX's Dragon and Falcon 9 - and then we'll talk about how close orbital is

[KillTheMessenger]

Cool. Another present for the Dad who has everything else, already.

[WIpatriot]

Literally, KTM.