SpaceShipTwo

SpaceShipTwo, company Model 339, was a retired air-launched suborbital spaceplane designed by Scaled Composites for space tourism and built by The Spaceship Company, a Virgin Galactic subsidiary. It was carried to launch altitude by the White Knight Two mothership, released at about 13,500 metres and flown on into the upper atmosphere by a single hybrid rocket engine, the RocketMotorTwo, before gliding home to a conventional runway landing. It reused technology from SpaceShipOne, which The Spaceship Company licensed from Mojave Aerospace Ventures, and it returned through the atmosphere in a feathered configuration. The cabin was planned for six passengers and two pilots, though no flight carried more than six people. The first vehicle, VSS Enterprise, was lost in an in-flight breakup on 31 October 2014. The second, VSS Unity, was unveiled in February 2016, reached space in December 2018, flew its first fare-paying passenger flight on 29 June 2023 and made its last flight on 8 June 2024.