The spaceship was named VSS Enterprise.

WhiteKnightTwo, a twin-hull all-carbon composite vehicle designed to launch SpaceShipTwo, was unveiled in July.

The development of the new Virgin Galactic vehicles is being carried out by Scaled Composites, the Mojave, California, based aeronautical firm owned by Northrop Grumman and led by Burt Rutan. Scaled Composites designed and built SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million X Prize in 2004 as the first privately funded, manned space vehicle.