SPACE TRAVEL IS POSSIBLE

On 25 September 2004, Branson announced the signing of a deal under which a new space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, will license the technology behind Spaceship One-funded by Microsoft co-Founder Paul Allen and designed by legendary American aeronautical engineer and visionary Burt Rutan-to take paying passengers into suborbital space. Virgin Galactic (wholly owned by Virgin Group) plans to make flights available to the public by late 2009 with tickets priced at US$200,000 using Scaled Composites White Knight Two.

SPACESHIPONE: (Paul Allen)
On June 21, 2004 in Mojave, California, SpaceShipOne rocketed into history by becoming the first privately built spacecraft to enter sub-orbital space. Just a few months later, the craft-piloted by Michael Melvill on September 29 and Brian Binnie on October 4-successfully attained space twice within five days, and thereby claimed the $10 million Ansari X-Prize. The X Prize was modeled after the $25,000 prize won by Charles Lindbergh for the first solo New York-to-Paris flight across the Atlantic in 1927.

Underwritten by Paul G. Allen and designed by renowned aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites in Mojave, Calif., SpaceShipOne's unique form and abilities portend a new future for independent space travel. In collaboration with the SpaceShipOne team, entrepreneur Richard Branson is planning a new venture called Virgin Galactic, which will shuttle civilians into space.

To learn more, please visit: www.scaled.com

23 December 2008
"The White Knight Two, Scaled Model 348, made its first flight on 21
December 2008. Pilot for the flight was Peter Siebold, Scaled's
Director of Flight Operations, and the copilot was Clint Nichols, also
of Scaled. The 1-hour flight explored handling qualities at altitudes
up to 16000 ft. We were very pleased with the results of the flight and
look forward to continued testing in the new year."