The Spaceship Company

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The Spaceship Company is a spacecraft manufacturing company formed by Burt Rutan and Richard Branson, jointly owned by Virgin Group and Scaled Composites, which will own the technology created by Scaled for Virgin Galactic's Virgin SpaceShip program. This includes developments on the care-free reentry system and cantilevered-hybrid rocket motor, licensed from Paul Allen and Burt Rutan's Mojave Aerospace. The company will manufacture Virgin Galactic's spacecraft and will sell spacecraft to other buyers. The suborbital launch system offered will be Tier 1b, that of SpaceShipTwo and White Knight Two.

The launch customer for the company and SS2/WK2 will be Virgin Galactic, having placed an order for five SpaceShipTwo's and two White Knight Two's, with a 1½-year exclusivity clause.

[edit] See also

• Virgin Group
• Virgin Galactic
  • Richard Branson
• Scaled Composites
  • Burt Rutan
• Mojave Aerospace
  • Paul Allen

• Tier One
  • SpaceShipOne
  • White Knight
• Tier 1b
  • SpaceShipTwo
  • White Knight Two
  • Virgin SpaceShip

[edit] External links

• Richard Branson and Burt Rutan Form Spacecraft Building Company (SPACE.com)
• Branson And Rutan Launch New Spaceship Manufacturing Company (ScienceDaily)
• Branson and Rutan Form ‘The Spaceship Company’ To Jointly Manufacture and Market Spaceships for the new Sub-Orbital Personal Spaceflight Industry (XPrize)
• Branson and Rutan Form 'The Spaceship Company' To Jointly Manufacture and Market Spaceships for the new Sub-Orbital Personal Spaceflight Industry (Scaled Composites press release)