MOJAVE, Calif. — The sleek, bullet-shaped spacecraft is about the size of a large business jet — with wide windows and seats for six well- heeled passengers to take a ride into space.
It’s billed as the world’s first commercial spaceship, designed to be carried aloft by an exotic jet before firing its rocket engine to climb beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
On Monday, Virgin Galactic took the cloak off SpaceShipTwo, which had been under secret development for two years. The company plans to sell suborbital space rides for $200,000 a ticket, offering passengers 2 1/2-hour flights that include about five minutes of weightlessness.
“We want this program to be a whole new beginning in a commercial era of space travel,” said Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, who partnered with famed aviation designer Burt Rutan on the venture.
The British billionaire hopes to begin passenger flights out of New Mexico in 2011 after a series of rigorous safety tests. Branson said he, his family and Rutan will be the first to fly on SpaceShipTwo.
SpaceShipTwo’s debut marks the first public appearance of a commercial passenger spacecraft. The white, stubby-winged spaceship sat in a Mojave Desert hangar, where it had been attached to the jet that will carry it to launch altitude.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson were on hand for the unveiling and christened the ship “Enterprise.”
