Space Flight Building in California

Virgin Galactic plans to unveil Monday its new six-passenger, two-pilot spaceship, which will carry paying customers to suborbit from the New Mexico Spaceport starting in 2011.

The unveiling will take place after dark in Mojave, Calif., where spaceship designer and builder Scaled Composites is constructing and testing the vehicle. The ceremony will be attended by Gov. Bill Richardson and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will jointly christen the ship Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Enterprise.

“Today we celebrate just how close we are to realizing the future of commercial space travel,” said Richardson in a news release. “New Mexico’s partnership with Virgin Galactic is going to completely transform the economy of southern New Mexico — creating high-wage jobs, attracting new companies, boosting tourism and investing in education.”

During 2010, Virgin Galactic will conduct flight and ground testing and obtain all required U.S. government licenses for the new vehicle, dubbed SpaceShipTwo. The company will begin commercial flights with tourists sometime in 2011 from Spaceport America in southern New Mexico, said Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson.

“This is truly a momentous day,” Branson said. “The unveil of SS2 takes the Virgin Galactic vision to the next level and continues to provide tangible evidence that this ambitious project is not only moving rapidly, but also making tremendous progress towards our goal of safe commercial operation.”

Scaled Composites already began test flights last year for WhiteKnightTwo, the mothership that will carry SpaceShipTwo partway to space on its underbelly. When the mothership reaches 50,000 feet, or 16 kilometers up, the passenger vehicle will detach to fire rocket motors that will shoot it into suborbit.

Virgin Galactic estimates its operations will create 1,100 jobs by 2011 in California and New Mexico, both through direct employment at Virgin Galactic and through companies that supply products and services. About 600 people are already working on activities related to the project, including about 200 employed in construction of the Spaceport.