White Knight 2

White Knight 2 is the name of Virgin Galactic's "mothership," a plane designed to reach a height of 50,000 feet in order to propel manned spacecraft SpaceShipTwo into suborbital space and back.¹

Fast Facts

1. Design firm: Scaled Composites²
2. Can reach height of 50,000 feet¹
3. Designed to be launch platform for SpaceShipTwo²
4. Made entirely of carbon composite fiber except for engines and landing gear²
5. Can carry SpaceShipTwo coast to coast in United States²

Riding in the White Knight 2

Designed by the firm Scaled Composites, the White Knight 2 is made almost entirely of carbon composite fiber.² Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson hopes to begin taking paying passengers aboard the White Knight 2 and SpaceShipTwo by 2012.³ As of late July 2008, 270 people have placed deposits of up to $200,000 apiece to take the planned voyage into suborbital space.^{3 4}

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