Branson unveils plane to launch spaceship

By Fred Prouser

MOJAVE, California (Reuters) - Entrepreneur Richard Branson on Monday unveiled the plane intended as the launch aircraft for a Virgin Galactic spaceship full of paying passengers.

The WhiteKnightTwo was displayed for a small group of reporters and invited guests at the California desert headquarters of Scaled Composites, the aerospace firm where it was built.

WhiteKnightTwo, nicknamed "Eve" after Branson's mother, was designed as a high-altitude aircraft that will launch SpaceShipTwo from midair.

It sports twin fuselages and a 140-foot (43-metre) wingspan and will carry SpaceShipTwo under the centre of its wing, between the two hulls. The plan is for the aircraft to free the spacecraft at about 50,000 feet (15,240 metres), from where it will rocket into space.

Virgin Galactic, part of Branson's airline, vacation and retail company Virgin Group, hopes to send its first paying customers into space for $200,000 (100,300 pounds) each within two years.

Branson said 200 people signed up for the ultimate sightseeing trip and that he expected the ticket price to drop significantly over the next five years.

Among the passengers expected to make the first trip are physicist Stephen Hawking, actress Victoria Principal and designer Philippe Starck.

Virgin Galactic is one of several contenders in the new commercial space race.