Mojave Spaceport Gearing Up for SpaceShipTwo

[Barrett808]

Mojave Spaceport Gearing Up for SpaceShipTwo
Author Leonard David

The Mojave, California Spaceport is preparing to handle test flights of the SpaceShipTwo – a passenger carrying suborbital craft, according to Bill Deaver, editor and publisher of the Mojave Desert News.

The newspaper on Thursday cited recent comments from Burt Rutan, head of Scaled Composites – the firm working to build the spaceship and its giant mothership, White Knight 2.

Rutan noted that Scaled Composites is doubling in size and he expects his firm to keep growing.

In the Mojave Desert News story, Rutan said that Scaled will begin building new hangars on the Mojave airport/spaceport’s new 3,500-foot long Taxiway Bravo soon as part of their project to design, build, and flight-test the new SpaceShipTwo/White Knight 2 generation of vehicles.

“I expect we will see at least two space flights a day in the next few years,” Rutan said, noting that the spacecraft and the launch vehicles he is designing “will be able to make two flights per day,” the newspaper story stated.

http://www.livescience.com/blogs/2006/09/08/mojave-spaceport-gearing-up-for-spaceshiptwo/

[1620rock]

1. Wow! I wonder how much a ticket would cost?

[Ready4Change]

2. Last I read, $200,000.

But that was a while ago. Development cost might make it increase, economies of scale might and marketing might allow it to decrease. Who knows, until it becomes a reality.

Exciting times, though.