Space ship two

Scaled Composites' Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is a
suborbital spaceplane for carrying space tourists, under
development by The Spaceship Company, a joint venture between Scaled Composites and
Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, as part of the Tier 1b program.
The spaceship was officially unveiled to the public on Monday, 7 December 2009,
at the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. The Virgin Galactic spaceline plans
to operate a fleet of five of these craft in passenger-carrying private spaceflight
service starting no earlier than 2011



he SpaceShipTwo project is based in part on technology developed for
SpaceShipOne as part of the Scaled Composites Tier One program, funded by Paul Allen.
The Spaceship Company licenses this technology from Mojave Aerospace Ventures,
a joint venture of the Paul Allen and Burt Rutan, the designer of the predecessor technology.

SpaceShipTwo will carry passengers to space; the capacity will be
eight people: six passengers and two pilots. The apogee of the new craft
will be approximately 110 km (68 miles) and in the thermosphere, 10 km (6 miles)
higher than both the SpaceShipOne target (though the last flight of the SpaceShipOne
reached 112 km), and the K?rm?n line. SpaceShipTwo will reach 4,200 km/h (2,600 mph),
using a single hybrid rocket motor (as seen in the technical diagram). It will launch
at 15,200 m (50,000 ft) from its mother ship, White Knight Two, and go supersonic within 8 seconds.
After 70 seconds, the rocket motors cut out and the spacecraft will coast to it's peak altitude.
SpaceShipTwo's crew cabin is 3.66 m (12 ft) long and 2.28 m (7.5 ft) in diameter.
The wing span is 8.23 m (27 ft), the length is 18.29 m (60 ft) and the tail height is 4.57 m (15 ft).