Virgin Galactic:A Knight in Shining Armour
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Virgin founder, billionaire, and the UK?s favourite boss, Richard Branson has unveiled a new high-altitude jet that will allow tourists to reach new heights.
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The jet will act as the ?mothership? for a spacecraft, releasing it in mid-air so it can take two crew and six passengers on sub-orbital flights.
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Already over 250 people have already paid ?100,000 ($200,000) each to be among the first making the tourist trips.
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Business tycoon Branson predicts the vehicles maiden voyage will take place in 18 months time. For the grand unveiling of White Knight Two ?Eve?, crowds of engineers, dignitaries and space enthusiasts gathered inside a hanger in the Mojave Desert in California.
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Virgin Galactic has contracted aerospace designer Burt Rutan to build its spacecraft at his Scaled Composites factory in California. Before the craft can even take off, ?Eve? must undergo a rigorous flight testing programme, which begins in the autumn.
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The mother ship is a white, four-engine jet, designed to cradle SpaceShipTwo under its wing and release it a 50,000 feet in the air. Once separated, SpaceShipTwo will fire its hybrid rocket and climb some 62 miles (100km) above the Earth.
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Engineers still need to finish building SpaceShipTwo, which is now about 70 percent complete, according to Virgin Galactic.
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Mr Branson said the name of the White Knight Two reflected the pioneering spirit of his space tourism venture.
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“We are naming it Eve after my mother, Eve Branson, but also because it represents a first and a new beginning, the chance for our ever-growing group of future astronauts and other scientists to see our world in a completely new light,” he said.
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