Mojave, California - The carrier aircraft at the center of
Virgin Galactic's plans for
commercial space flight, the mothership known so far as
White KnightTwo, was unveiled by Virgin's Sir
Richard Branson and
Burt Rutan on Monday, July 28, 2008, at the
Scaled Composites' factory in Mojave, California.
Christened as "Eve" in honor of Sir Richard's mother, White Knight Two is the atmospheric "first stage" that will lift SpaceShipTwo up to 50,000 feet before releasing the smaller sub-orbital spacecraft for its journey into micro gravity at the edge of space.
Scaled Composites says White Knight Two is the largest all composite aircraft ever built and it has enough range to fly coast-to-coast ferrying the SpaceShipTwo second stage, slated for its own rollout, says Scaled in a prepared statement, in 2009.
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