Posted: Mon, Jul 28 9:38 PM ET (0138 GMT)
Space tourism company Virgin Galactic and vehicle developer Scaled Composites rolled out Monday morning WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), the carrier aircraft that will be used to launch SpaceShipTwo (SS2) on its future commercial suborbital spaceflights. The aircraft, built for Virgin by Scaled at its facilities in Mojave, California, is the largest aircraft ever built entirely with carbon composites, with a wingspan of over 42 meters. WK2 will be used to ferry SS2 to an altitude of nearly 15,000 meters, where SS2 will be released, firing its rocket engine to fly a suborbital trajectory. Test flights of the aircraft are slated to begin this fall. Development of SS2 has been slowed by an accident just over a year ago during a test of the vehicle's propulsion system that killed three Scaled employees and injured three others. A report on the accident is expected to be released in the near future, according to Scaled's founder, Burt Rutan. Virgin announced that it has now signed up 270 customers for its suborbital spaceflights, and has an agreement with a sister company, Virgin America, to allow that airline's pilots to train as WK2 and SS2 pilots.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  Los Angeles Times article
•  Reuters article
•  The Guardian article
•  Popular Science article

Posted: Thu, Jun 12 6:29 AM ET (1029 GMT)
A co-founder of Internet search giant Google has put down a deposit on a future flight to the International Space Station through Space Adventures, the company announced Wednesday. Sergey Brin paid a $5-million deposit to be the first member of the company's new Orbital Mission Explorers Circie, a group that will have preferential access to future commercial flights to the ISS. Brin has not committed to a specific date for his flight. Space Adventures also announced that is reached an agreement with the Russian space agency Roskosmos for the first dedicated commercial Soyuz flight to the station, planned for the second half of 2011; the flight will have two seats available for commercial passengers. Space Adventures has flown five people on regular Soyuz taxi flights to the station, with a sixth, Richard Garriott, scheduled to fly in October.

Related Links:

•  New York Times article
•  SPACE.com article
•  Washington Post article
•  Space Adventures press release about Brin
•  Space Adventures press release about ISS private mission

XCOR announces suborbital vehicle plans
Posted: Wed, Mar 26 5:45 AM ET (0945 GMT)
XCOR Aerospace announced Wednesday plans to develop a suborbital rocketplane that could start flying people to the edge of space in two years. The Lynx...

Virgin, Scaled unveil new SpaceShipTwo design
Posted: Thu, Jan 24 6:56 AM ET (1156 GMT)
Space tourism operator Virgin Galactic and vehicle developer Scaled Composites unveiled a new design for the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) suborbital spacecraft and its carrier aircraft, White...

Scaled fined for July accident
Posted: Sat, Jan 19 8:35 AM ET (1335 GMT)
California regulators have fined Scaled Composites over $25,000 for an accident last July that killed three employees working on the propulsion system for the...