Spacecraft Building Company
Announced July 28, 2005 at the Experimental Aircraft Association's Airventure gathering.
Led by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson and aerospace designer Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites
The Company plans to manufacture launch aircraft, various spacecraft and support equipment and market those products to spaceliner operators.
Scaled Composites will be contracted for research and development testing and certification of a 9-person SpaceShipTwo (SS2) design, and a White Knight Two (WK2) mothership to be called Eve. Burt Rutan will head up the technical development team for the SS2/WK2 combination.
Both the new vehicles are to be twice the size of the earlier models. SS2 is destined to be able to carry 7 paying passengers, along with a two-person flight crew. Estimated time of delivery of said craft is between 2008-9, with experimental test being carried out by the end of 2007.
