Space tourism with Virgin Galactic
At a rollout ceremony in California, Sir Richard Branson and his family unveiled Virgin Galactic’s newly completed SpaceShipTwo - the vehicle that is hoped to ferry paying guests into space.
The new commercial spaceship - designed to take a crew of two pilots and up to six passengers to space - replaces its predecessor, which crashed and killed one of its pilots over California’s Mojave Desert in October 2014.
Sir Richard unveils the VSS Unity A recorded message from Professor Stephen Hawking, who named the new vehicle Virgin Spaceship (VSS) Unity, was shown at the ceremony, in which he said he “would be very proud to fly on this spaceship.” The ceremony also included a video congratulations from Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai emphasising the importance of space to science and technical education. The new SpaceShipTwo is the first vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s wholly owned manufacturing arm, and is the second vehicle of its design ever constructed.
Virgin Spaceship Unity in Mojave, California In a statement, Virgin Galactic stated that the vehicle will undergo multiple test flights and assessments before it takes its first passengers to space - “When we are confident we can safely carry our customers to space, we will start doing so.” Despite the hefty $250,000 (£150,000) price tag, since its inception in 2004, more than 700 would-be astronauts have signed up, including Hollywood actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Ashton Kutcher, Angelina Jolie and Tom Hanks.
Sir Richard, Virgin Galactic and The Spaceship Company teams Speaking at the launch, Sir Richard Branson said, “Together, we can make space accessible in a way that has only been dreamt of before now, and by doing so can bring positive change to life on Earth. Our beautiful new spaceship, VSS Unity, is the embodiment of that goal and will provide us with an unprecedented body of experience which will in turn lay the foundations for Virgin Galactic’s future.” Branson is not the only billionaire making inroads into space tourism; Paypal and Tesla founder Elon Musk and his firm, SpaceX; as well as Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Aerospace are both hot on the heels of Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
Rear of Virgin Spaceship (VSS) Unity
