Contributed by: filbert Thursday, July 28 2005 @ 07:20 AM CST
From the press release:
The launch customer for this new joint venture between Virgin Group and Scaled Composites will be Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson’s commercial space tourism venture. Virgin Galactic has placed orders for five SS2’s and two WK2’s, with options on further systems, thus securing the exclusive use of the systems for the initial 18 months of commercial passenger operations.
The Spaceship Company plans to make spaceflight affordable for the masses and to demonstrate the commercial viability of manned space exploration. We are dedicated to reaching that goal with the first generation of spaceship systems developed for routine, scheduled flight operations. Those systems will be environmentally friendly and will include new solutions to optimize both safety and the passenger experience. We expect that as the flight hardware matures, and is operated by competing spaceline companies, many thousands of people will experience the wonder of leaving the earth’s atmosphere each year.