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Tuesday December 8, 2009
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Virgin Galactic has taken the wraps off the first of five long-awaited SpaceShipTwo spacecrafts.
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson were on hand to christen the spacecraft with the customary bashing of champagne bottles, National Geographic reports. Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson's daughter Holly announced the first ship's name: V.S.S. Enterprise.
The 60-foot-long ship is based on the original SpaceShipOne, a reusable manned spacecraft that won the $10-million Ansari X Prize back in 2004. EVE, a twin-fuselage mother ship, carries the V.S.S. Enterprise to launch altitude at about 50,000 feet before it separates, the report said.
The ship is designed to carry two pilots and six passengers, who "will pay handsomely for two and a half hour flights into suborbital space," to experience weightlessness and see the Earth's curvature.
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