No, I didn't forget my spacing in the title. SpaceShipTwo (image above) is a suborbital spaceplane for carrying space tourists. A recent AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, of which I am a member) article states:
"SpaceShipTwo is the sequel to Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipOne, which completed the world's first manned private space flights in 2004. The spacecraft was unveiled with its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo (image below) .... (and) has been designed to carry many thousands of private astronauts into space."
The design team at Scaled Composites is headed by legendary aircraft visionary Burt Rutan, whose creations include the VariEze, the Long-EZ, and the globe-spanning Voyager. If SS2 becomes operational in my lifetime, I shall do whatever it takes to book passage, since traveling in space is on my short list of fantasy activites -- along with conducting an orchestra playing Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony, kayaking the Grand Canyon, and writing my next twenty novels!
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