Virgin Galactic confirmed Wednesday it is retaining Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to build two next generation motherships, the company announced on Wednesday.

The agreement calls for the first ship to enter service in 2025, the same year Virgin Galactic's first Delta-class spaceship is expected to begin revenue payload flights.

They represent the spaceflight company's next generation of motherships and are expected to be able to fly up to 200 launches per year, Virgin said in a statement.

A mothership serves as the air launch carrier aircraft in Virgin Galactic's space flight system that carries the spaceship to its release altitude of approximately 50,000 feet.

Aurora has been working with edge aircraft from concept to delivery and specializes in novel aircraft configurations and complex composites.

The company has been around for 30 years and has been working with Virgin Galactic over the past several months to develop design specifications, it said.

"Our next generation motherships are integral to scaling our operations. They will be faster to produce, easier to maintain and will allow us to fly substantially more missions each year," Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said in a statement.

"Supported by the scale and strength of Boeing, Aurora is the ideal manufacturing partner for us as we build our fleet to support 400 flights per year at Spaceport America."

Virgin Galactic was founded by British billionaire Richard Branson. In July, the 71-year-old became the first owner of a private space company to fly into space.

Branson's flight aboard the Virgin Galactic VSS Unity spaceship launched from New Mexico's private Spaceport America.

Unity is one of two spacecraft currently in the company's fleet, with VSS Imagine as the other.

Branson remains Virgin Galactic's largest shareholder with a stake worth nearly $600 million.

Related Links
Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Successful high-speed flight experiments with new sounding rocket configuration
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jun 30, 2022
Reusable launch systems are exposed to high dynamic and thermo-mechanical loads during their return to Earth. The German Aerospace Center has now successfully tested high temperature structures, advanced measurement techniques and design tools for the re-entry phase with the STORT (Schlusseltechnologien fur hochenergetische Ruckkehrfluge von Tragerstufen - key technologies for high-energy return flights of launch stages) flight experiment. In the early morning of 26 June 2022, the three-stage rock ... read more