Virgin Galactic reveals updated passenger spacecraft and restarts test flights
Virgin Galactic has unveiled an updated version of its commercial SpaceShipTwo craft, the Virgin Spaceship Unity, which will begin renewed testing in California and New Mexico following a fatal crash in 2015.
Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson said the spacecraft comes with "new bells and whistles" in a promotional video, though the company was vague about how the new plane's technology differs from SpaceShipTwo.
Virgin Spaceship (VSS) Unity features a new silver and white livery, and is the first vehicle to be manufactured by The Spaceship Company ? Virgin Galactic's own manufacturing arm.
"Together, we can make space accessible in a way that has only been dreamt of before now, and by doing so can bring positive change to life on Earth," said Branson.
"Our beautiful new spaceship, VSS Unity, is the embodiment of that goal and will provide us with an unprecedented body of experience which will in turn lay the foundations for Virgin Galactic's future."
Nobel-prize winning physicist Stephen Hawking gave the craft its name, and said: "I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship" in a recorded speech played during the unveiling event in Mojave, California, yesterday.
First revealed in 2008, SpaceShipTwo was designed to carry six passengers and two pilots for short flights into space.
Related story: Virgin Galactic passenger spacecraft completes first rocket-powered flight
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