Virgin Galactic aircraft presents for space tourists

July 29, 2008 · Filed Under Aircraft

NEW YORK (AP) - up for the dreams of space tourists: The British billionaire Richard Branson, on Monday in the Californian Mojave desert his long-awaited aircraft carrier for private. “We call it” Eve “after my mother’s Eve Branson, but also because it is first and a new beginning,” said the entrepreneur faces a number of invited guests, as his company announced.

space jet

The plane is made of carbon fiber (Carbon) manufactured, which is a slight but very reliable composite material. The wings Holm is claimed to more than 42 meters, the longest single section in the aviation ever made of carbon produced. The machine is so low on energy as yet no aircraft in aviation history, said Branson. “The system will allow thousands of people to make their dream come true, and it is the access of all people to change it.”

The flights will start next year. Among the world’s 250 interested parties, which already have registered, including the 31-year-old Sonja Rohde, the first German woman to travel into orbit. She took according to the Munich design tour operator travel to the presentation in California. The company sells in Germany for flights into space. Cost: 200 000 dollars or 127 000 euros for a Two and a half-hour trip with five minutes of weightlessness.

Decision wraps was initially only the mother ship. The actual space capsule, “Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo”, should only be presented next year. The guests were allowed in California, however, take a look in the direction of the throw good piece - it was still mysterious wrapped in the hangar.

Branson’s company Virgin Galactic has been working for four years together with the U.S. aircraft designer Burt Rutan in the project. Last year it suffered a setback after a heavy explosion on the test airport three technicians were killed.

Rutan was also the developer of aircraft missiles “Space Ship One”, in 2004 twice by the Mojave Desert into space met before. Branson of the project was so pleased that he bought the technology and now with the improved version of the first to send tourists into space. Overall, Virgin Galactic, with more than 250 million U.S. dollars development costs.