Mike "Sooch" Masucci Test pilot: Kelly Latimer Pilot: Rick "CJ" Sturckow Pilot: Nicola Pecile Chief astronaut instructor: Beth Moses Aircraft and spacecraft Motherships White Knight Two The White Knight Two is a special aeroplane built as the mother ship and launch-platform for the spacecraft SpaceShipTwo and the uncrewed launch vehicle LauncherOne. The mothership is a large fixed-wing aircraft with two hulls linked together by a central wing. Two aircraft are planned – VMS Eve and VMS Spirit of Steve Fossett. On May 22, 2021 Mothership Eve was used to carry VSS Unity to a launch altitude of 44,000 feet. Boeing 747 The LauncherOne system will use a Boeing 747-400 aircraft, renamed Cosmic Girl, which was acquired from Virgin Atlantic. This was spun off into Virgin Orbit with the LauncherOne business in 2017. Generation II mothership Virgin Galactic plans to have generation 2 motherships ready for 2025, for the next-generation Delta-class spaceplanes. It partnered with Boeing's Aurora Flight Sciences to design and build the next generation of mothership. Spaceships SpaceShip Two Richard Branson unveiled the rocket plane on 7 December 2009, announcing that, after testing, the plane would carry fare-paying passengers ticketed for short duration journeys just above the atmosphere. Virgin Group would initially launch from a base in New Mexico before extending operations around the globe. Built from lightweight carbon-composite materials and powered by a hybrid rocket motor, SS2 is based on the Ansari X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne concept – a rocket plane that is lifted initially by a carrier aircraft before independent launch. SS1 became the world's first private spaceship with a series of high-altitude flights in 2004. The programme was delayed after three Scaled Composites employees – Todd Ivens, Eric Blackwell and Charles May – were killed in an accident in Mojave on 26 July 2007, where the detonation of a tank of nitrous oxide destroyed a test stand. They had been observing the test from behind a chain-link fence that offered no protection from the shrapnel and debris when the tank exploded. Three other employees were injured in the blast and the company was fined for breaches of health and safety rules. The cause of the accident has never been made public. Its successor is twice as large, measuring 18 m (60 ft) in length; whereas SpaceShipOne could carry a single pilot and two passengers, SS2 will have a crew of two and room for six passengers. By