Richard Branson unveils new Virgin Galactic passenger spaceship

Seven years later, Virgin Galactic fell to yet another letdown as one of its pilots named Michael Alsbury died during a test flight.

Virgin Galactic has unveiled a new spacecraft created to take paying tourists to the edge of space, less than 18 months since its predecessor broke apart in the sky above Southern California. “It was only after meeting all our engineers, meeting the families, talking to our astronauts in waiting- seeing that everybody wanted us to continue – that we chose to push forward”.

At about 50,000 feet, WhiteKnightTwo will release the space plane, from where the SpaceShipTwo’s rocket motor will take it up to about 100 kilometers above the Earth. Therefore it was fitting that the Range Rover Autobiography took a staring role as our new SpaceShipTwo, Unity, made its global debut. The tail itself was emblazoned with a blue image of a peering eye belonging to famed British physicist and Virgin Galactic supporter Stephen Hawking, who attended the grand unveiling.

The new SpaceShipTwo is the first vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Company, Virgin Galactic’s wholly owned manufacturing arm, and is the second vehicle of its design ever constructed. The launch came more than a year after the tragic 2014 crash during one of the company’s test flights.

“I never thought I would have the opportunity to see our lovely planet from space, or gaze down into the infinity beyond”, Hawking said in a recorded message played at the unveiling.

BOB RIHA JR/EPA Branson’s grandaughter Eva-Deia helped smash a baby milk bottle on the nose of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. To ensure Hawking’s contributions are remembered even if he finds himself unable to personally fly into space, the company has now included a flag in the Unity’s logo bearing an image of Hawking’s eye.

A National Transportation Safety Board investigation has unveiled that Scaled Composites, which was developing SpaceShipTwo with Virgin Galactic and responsible for its team program, should have compensated for human error. “If it was an easy business we wouldn’t only have had 500 people having been to space since space travel started”, Branson told Sky News on Friday.

Seats on the spacecraft, which can carry six passengers, will cost $250,000 – around £174,500. Hundreds of customers, including many celebrities, have already signed up to fly on the first SpaceShipTwo flights.

According to company Chief Executive George Whitesides, Branson’s Virgin Group and Aabar Investments (run by the Abu Dhabi government) have invested more than $500 million in Virgin Galactic.