Astronaut for Hire

Inside SpaceShipTwo

4/08/2011 09:26:00 PM

Last week, BBC transportation correspondent Richard Scott released an exclusive video tour of the unfinished SpaceShipTwo (SS2) cabin interior. He is the first journalist allowed inside Virgin Galactic's spaceship. In the video, he gives viewers a firsthand tour of the vehicle's cabin, which is still under construction at the Mojave Air and Spaceport.

The full BBC article also includes two additional videos where Scott interviews Scaled Composites test pilot Peter Siebold and tours the Spaceport America facility, where SS2 will eventually be based. Siebold has flown the new spacecraft on two glide flights and described it as "exhilarating." According to the videos, once the rocket motor is complete, Scaled Composites will test the powered flight capabilities of the vehicle and plans to start taking paying customers into space by 2013.  This is big news, as previous reports from Virgin had pointed to commercial flights as soon as late 2011.  I guess the scheduled slipped.

Screenshot from video of the SS2 cabin (credit: BBC).

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