2,500mph rocket craft designed to cross the line

WITH space for two pilots and eventually up to six passengers – each paying $250,000 for the privilege – Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo measures 60ft in length and has a wingspan of 26ft.

Unveiled by Sir Richard Branson in December 2009, it has been regarded as the world’s best chance of commercially successful private space travel.

The cabin diameter itself is just seven and a half feet, with the entire craft standing 18ft high with its rudders down.

SpaceShipTwo is designed to be air-launched from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane at heights of 50,000ft before powering up its engine.

In theory, after separation SS2 could fire its hybrid rocket motor for 70 seconds and accelerate to 2,500mph.

That should be enough to propel the aircraft past the Karman Line – the point in the atmosphere where fliers are considered astronauts.

Made of lightweight carbon composite, it is based on the award-winning design of predecessor SpaceShipOne, created by Burt Rutan.

Carbon composite has four times the strength of steel but only a quarter of its weight.

Because the rocket has to operate in a very thin atmosphere, it is also kitted out with its own oxidiser requiring the use of valves to help throttle or shut down the motor.

Changes were made to the way the engines operated and were fuelled, with this flight being used as part of test conditions to see how they responded.