Remember the Virgin Galactic Mothership Hunter posted about over the weekend? Well, Designer Burt Rhutan of Scaled Composites and Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin, have unveiled the latest in aviation technology and the world’s largest all carbon composite aircraft, the White Knight 2. It’s capable of reaching heights as great as 50,000 feet and specifies in training pilots for pre space-flight with positive G forces and zero G exercises.

Branson’s interest in space exploration was inspired by Steven Hawking (not the LEGO variety) and it seems like the days of Star Trek are getting closer and closer. With twelve of these babies being built, maybe those weddings in space will be bountiful in the near future. CrunchGear has great live coverage of the event, featuring tons of pictures, videos and facts on the unveiling of the White Knight 2.

Link

Good news for people who want to have a space wedding or drink some Martian mineral water: Virgin Galactic, the space tourism venture co-sponsored by British mogul Sir Richard Branson and aerospace designer Burt Rutan will unveil their ship White Knight Two tomorrow. Over two hundred people have already plunked down $200,000 to take Virgin Galactic’s rockets to space when the program begins sometime after late 2009. White Knight Two will carry the rockets 50,000 feet in the air before releasing them. After disengaging from White Knight Two, the Virgin Galactic spaceships will fly to a maximum height of 363,033 feet. Though White Knight Two will be ready to present to the public tomorrow, the spaceships are still being kept under wraps and Virgin says they are only about 70% completed.

Link