Burt Rutan and Richard Branson are doing their “deep pocketed space explorer” thing again. They’ve revealed the second version of their suborbital spacecraft, aptly called “SpaceShipTwo” and pictured above, presumably via a cell phone camera at the event. They also announced that the launch vehicle, “WhiteKnightTwo,” will be on an open architecture “like Linux.”
The GPL wasn’t designed with spaceships in mind, however, so they clarified that they will cooperate with anyone who wants to contribute to the design, and will gladly allow others to use components for their own purposes. Check out the link for ongoing coverage and more info about this awesome project.
Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo; Plans open architecture spaceship [ZDNet]
Update: BBC has a better picture.
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