On July 28, the U.K.-based Virgin Group's Sir Richard Branson and aerospace designer Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites LLC (Mojave, Calif.) revealed the new WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier aircraft, which will ferry space tourism company Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo to launch altitude. SpaceShipTwo is the larger, eight-passenger successor to SpaceShipOne, the suborbital space vehicle that claimed the X-Prize in 2004. The rollout represents another major milestone in Virgin Galactic's quest to provide the world's first privately developed space access system. Branson intends not only to provide thousands of private astronauts a brief, weightless flight outside the earth's atmosphere but also hopes to ferry other payloads into space, including science projects.

According to Branson, WK2 represents ground-breaking aerospace technology and is the world's largest all-carbon composite aircraft, with many of its component parts produced in composite materials for the first time. At 140 ft/42.7m, the wingspan is the longest ever manufactured in composites, says a company press release. The vehicle, powered by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines, has a ceiling of more than 50,000 ft/15,240m, and its U.S. coast-to-coast range will allow the spaceship to be ferried on long-duration flights. WK2 reportedly will be able to support as many as four suborbital space flights per day. Further, it is able to carry out both day and night operations and is equipped with a package of highly advanced avionics. WK2 has already begun ground tests; it is expected to take its first flight this fall. The company expects SpaceShipTwo to be carried aloft for the first time in 2009.