Virgin Galactic announced a partnership with Boeing owned Aurora Flight Sciences to design and manufacture two next generation ‘motherships’ on Wednesday. A mothership carries the spaceship to launch altitude of 15km, releases the spaceship which fires its rocket engine and flies above 90km. All this is part of the organization’s plan to take more tourists to the edge of space hoping to fly approximately 400 flights a year. Delivery of the first of the two motherships is expected in 2025.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said, “Our next-generation motherships are integral to scaling our operations. They will be faster to produce, easier to maintain, and will allow us to fly substantially more missions each year.” The company has flown a couple of times with test crews and its founder Richard Branson too.
