Sir Richard Branson flew on board the Virgin Galactic mothership WhiteKnightTwo for the first time on July 28.
The craft, which looks like two aircraft connected at the wing, arrived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in Monday. The shuttle is designed to carry a spaceship, called SpaceShipTwo, to the end of the Earth’s atmosphere, where it will be released.
Branson hopes to use the system to create a commercial space travel business. About 320 people have already paid $200,000 for a trip into space. The first paid flights are expected to launch from New Mexico.
Flights will last two-and-a-half hours and will reach a maximum speed of about 2,500mph. SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers and two pilots. There will be one flight per week to start with, increasing to one a day.
Virgin Galactic received a boost this week when Aabar Investments of Abu Dhabi bought one-third of the company for $280 million.
The investment firm is the first outside investor in the company, which was owned fully by Branson’s Virgin Group.
The deal means Aabar will have exclusive rights to launch Virgin Galactic tourism from the United Arab Emirates capital.
In the UK Elegant Resorts is the Accredited Space Agent for Virgin.