Filed under:
Photos of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo unveiling
-
SpaceShipTwo is designed to take two pilots and six passengers into sub-orbital space.
-
The vehicle is meant to travel up to 70 miles high and up to 2,600 mph.
-
One of SpaceShipTwo's wings.
-
SpaceShipTwo's cockpit area.
-
Richard Branson's granddaughter Eva Deia celebrated her first birthday by christening the spaceship... with a bottle of milk.
-
And it was an awkward success.
-
Branson strikes a pose for pictures with the spaceplane.
-
The Virgin Galactic team waves for a group photo.
-
A closeup view of the vehicle's wing.
-
A rendering of Stephen Hawking's eye is on two sides of the spaceplane. Hawking gave SpaceShipTwo its new name, the VSS Unity.
-
A hybrid fuel rocket engine will propel the spaceshiptwo into the upper reaches of our atmosphere.
-
Virgin Galactic is returning to a rubber-like fuel for its engine — one that has had some controversy.
-
The nose of the cockpit.
-
Virgin Galactic's logo is plastered across the vehicle's underbelly. It will be more visible when the spaceplane is in the sky.
-
Test Pilot Colonel Scott Cain talks with a young boy at the event.
-
Up to 700 customers have already paid $250,000 to book a ride on Virgin Galactic's spaceplane.
-
The vehicle's wings are meant to shift position in space — a maneuver known as feathering. It's a move that helps slow down the spaceplane during its descent.
-
Shiny, captain.
