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The days of high-tech metal mountings to hold spacecraft together are gone, according to the man designing Virgin Galactics' commercial spaceplanes. Apparently, all you need is glue. Knowing that, suddenly we're much more worried about flying in a Virgin ship. More »
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Say what you will about Sir Richard Branson — at least he uses his billions to help other people have fun, not just himself. That's the quality that makes him the prime funder behind space tourism, a brand new phenomenon that will let regular folk head to the stars for the first time. Well, regular folk with 200 grand up their sleeves, that is. After the recent unveiling of Branson's Virgin Mothership, we have to ask: Exactly how far are these new space tourists going, and does Paris Hilton's Virgin Galactic ticket really make her equal to the likes of Yuri Gagarin? More »
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Here's the new SpaceShipTwo, unveiled today by space tourist pioneer Burt Rutan. Like SpaceShipOne, the new ship will ferry tourists to the edge of space on Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's new venture. 2008 will be "the year of the spaceship," promised Branson. WhiteKnightTwo, a four-engine plane, lifts the spaceship high into the sky, and then it burns a mixture of nitrous oxide and rubber-based fuel to make it up to the black. Click through for a video of SpaceShipOne, the original Virgin Galactic ship. More »
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