Virgin Galactic rolls out new space-tourism rocket

Associated Press

MOJAVE, Calif.

Virgin Galactic rolled out a new version of its SpaceShipTwo space-tourism rocket Friday as it prepares to return to flight testing for the first time since a 2014 accident destroyed the original craft, killing a pilot and setting back the nascent industry.

A Land Rover with Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson standing through the sunroof pulled the ship in front of an audience inside a hangar at Southern California’s Mojave Air & Space Port, where it was assembled.

Branson’s 1-year-old granddaughter, Eva-Deia, helped by her mother, christened the craft by breaking a little bottle of milk over its nose. The baby is the daughter of Branson’s son, Sam, and his wife, Bellie.

“All of us in this room need to pinch ourselves. ... Isn’t she quite beautiful,” Branson told the audience.

The ship is the size of a small corporate jet. It was named Virgin Spaceship Unity at the suggestion of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, whom Branson promised a free ride into space.

SpaceShipTwo is designed to be flown by a crew of two and carry up to six passengers on a high-speed suborbital flight to the fringes of space. At an altitude above 62 miles, passengers will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the Earth below.

After years of development, Virgin Galactic appeared to be nearing the goal of turning ordinary civilians into astronauts when the first SpaceShipTwo broke apart Oct. 31, 2014, during its fourth rocket-powered flight. Wreckage fell to the Mojave Desert floor.