WhiteKnightTwo rollout in July, 1st flight in September, money in Branson's pocket

The Rocket Scientists (pun intended) over at Scaled Composites have announced that WhiteKnightTwo, the planned mothership of SpaceShipTwo, should be rolled out late next month in a public ceremony. The 100% composite successor to the original WhiteKnight could take to the skies by September. The incredible design of WhiteKnightTwo was one of the first posts on PointNiner and I've been quite interested to see where Scaled and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic take it. More than just a tug boat for SpaceShip2, WhiteKnightTwo is being heralded by company execs as an "open architecture" platform. Will Whitehorn, Scaled's President says, "WhiteKnightTwo is the world's most advanced payload carrier. It has the best fuel efficiency of any aircraft ever built in history." Some proposed applications for the twin boom fuselage include zero-G training, aerial firefighting, and even the tossing of micro-satellites into orbit. Of course, the main purpose in this aircraft's life is to haul SpaceShipTwo and her passengers up for their $200,000 a pop jaunt into sub-orbital space.

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