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Article: Knight in shining armour; Space flight.(More uses for private space flight)(Richard Branson's White Knight Two)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 2, 2008
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2008 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Let the tourney begin
Private space tourism is just the beginning
A COMPANY called Scaled Composites is to aircraft makers what Ozwald Boateng is to tailors. If Sir wants something bespoke but slightly outlandish, Sir has most definitely come to the right place. Burt Rutan, the firm's founder, supervised the construction of Voyager and GlobalFlyer, two aeroplanes that flew non-stop around the world. But of the 39 craft that have been built and tested at its base in Mojave, California, since 1974, none is more extraordinary than White Knight Two.
White Knight Two is not merely an aircraft. It is the first stage of a spaceship. "Sir", in this case, is Sir Richard ...