Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo, the world's first commercial manned spaceship Virgin Founder, Sir Richard Branson and

This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage.

Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo, the world's first commercial manned spaceship Virgin Founder, Sir Richard Branson and SpaceshipOne (SS1) designer, Burt Rutan, reveal SS2 to the public for the first time since construction of the world's first manned commercial spaceship began in 2007. SS2 has been designed to take many thousands of private astronauts into space after test programming and all required U.S. government licensing has been completed. Governors Bill Richardson and Arnold Schwarzenegger both contributed at the press conference, celebrating this huge milestone and also joining Holly, Richard's daughter in naming the spaceship, VSS Enterprise. The unveiling represents another major milestone in Virgin Galactic's quest to develop the World's first commercial space line providing private sector access to space using an environmentally benign launch system for people, payload and science. The spaceship draws on the experience developed during the successful flights of SS1 in 2004, which won the Ansari X-Prize for completing the world's first manned private space flights. The SS2 design will be refined and completed during an extensive test flying program to commence shortly, and it will be an entirely new vehicle capable of carrying up to 6 passenger astronauts and up to 2 pilot astronauts into space on a sub-orbital flight.(JP/WN)