To a lot of people, that includes me, it would be a dream come true to be able to take a tour beyond the earth’s realm. And we all know only a handful of people were able to do that. Either you’d have to be an astronaut or have lots of money to burn in order to do so. And you need a high-tech aircraft to be able to go out in space and then to return to earth safely. The first spacecraft to achieve this was the SpaceShipOne made by Burt Rutan. And just this Wednesday he added another installment to his creation. The model of the SpaceShipTwo, together with its carrier airplane WhiteKnightTwo, was unveiled in New York.

Just like what we see in movies, the carrier WhiteKnightTwo will carry the spacecraft at its required altitude in the sky and then release it. After the release the rest will be up to the spacecraft pilot. He’ll have to activate the engine that runs on nitrous oxide and rubber-based solid fuel.

This new tourist spacecraft and carrier are already nearing completion and it’s expected that by 2009 or 2010 there’ll be a new batch of tourists to take on the space adventure! In the meantime SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo are being developed by company Virgin Galactic.

Source: New York Times