Virgin Galactic shows off first commercial starship

We’ve posted about Virgin Galactic before, but this might be their biggest announcement yet. Take a look at SpaceShipTwo in all its glory, ready to launch the wealthy into flight.

Branson and company just unveiled SpaceShipTwo in the Mojave desert today, and it’s looking good. Testing has already started, however full blown commercial flights aren’t expected to start until 2011. Given the history of the space program, that seems best. Branson has stated previously that the first people to go up will be him, along with his family and the designer of the spacecraft, Burt Rutan. A seat on the ship will cost roughly $200,000 so I’d suggest you start saving now.