“Virgin Galactic will also act as a test-bed for new and clean technologies”

Unable to resist his excitement over sharing more on his “sexiest spaceship”, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson is now explaining the ethics and the rationally behind his newest venture.

The Virgin Galactic founder Friday blogged on the subject, outlining his thoughts on why he thought it was an important initiative to get behind and invest in.

“I believe that we need to continue to exploit the huge potential space holds; but current technology is old, carbon intensive, expensive and funded by Governments. Virgin Galactic’s system has radically overturned much of the traditional thinking behind space launches and as a result is cleaner, cheaper and safer by design. It is also privately funded,” wrote Branson on his Virgin website.

“We will use horizontal air launch rather than vertical ground launch. The spaceship is released from a carrier aircraft at around 50,000 feet. This removes the need for large, energy hungry and dirty ground-based rocketry.”

Touching the corporate social responsibility note, Branson said his Virgin Galactic and its partner Scaled Composites were creating a lot of jobs, in a town where they are a scarce commodity and in a region that’s currently has a 4% higher unemployment rate than the rest of California.

“Technology and the adaption of it to help us understand our planet better are one of the keys to a sustainable economy,” he concluded.

On 7th December, Virgin Galactic unveiled SpaceShipTwo to the world at Mojave Spaceport, California, where journalists, future astronauts and VIPs gathered in the desert for a press conference and to view the roll out of the world’s first commercial spaceline.

Despite gale force winds and stormy weather, guests gathered on the runway after the press conference to see SpaceShipTwo for the first time. The spaceship was carried down the runway by her mothership, VMS Eve, to a spectacular display of lights, music and snow which only helped increase the anticipation of her arrival and excitement and awe as she appeared before the crowds.