Today Wednesday 6 July Virgin Galactic, a company that deals with sub-orbital tourist flights, announced that it has selected Aurora, a company of the Boeing groups, for the creation of two new 'Mother Ships', or two new aircraft capable of to transport the SpaceShipTwo (and future) spacecraft to the release schedule.
“Our next generation motherships are integral to the downsizing of our operations. They will be faster to produce, easier to maintain and will allow us to carry out substantially more missions each year - said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic - Aurora is the ideal manufacturing partner to build our fleet capable of carrying out 400 flights. per year by Spaceport America ".
The Aurora company plans to build the two vehicles at locations in Mississippi and West Virgina, with final assembly at Virgin Galactin's facility in Mojave, California.
The first aircraft is expected to be ready in 2025, the same year that Virgin Galactic's first Delta-class spaceship is expected to begin payload flights.