Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane at Farnborough 2012

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Replica of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShIpTwo at the Farnborough Air Show 2012. Virgin Galactic's Sir Richard Branson announced a new approach to getting satellites into low-earth orbit at the Farnborough Air Show with its LauncherOne project. The air-launched LauncherOne rocket will be carried aloft underneath the WhiteKnightTwo mothership before being released. A rocket engine will then ignite, taking the launcher and its payload on into space. Virgin Galactic said LauncherOne could enter commercial service in 2016. He added that he company has now accepted deposits for sub-orbital flights on SpaceShipTwo from 529 future astronauts worldwide - more than the total number of people who have ever been to space.

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Size: 3696px × 2448px
Location: Farnborough Air Show, Hampshire, UK
Photo credit: © Steve Nichols / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: branson, burt, composites, richard, rocket, rutan, scaled, sir, space, spaceflight, tourism, weightless, weightlessness