Once Virgin Galactic finally conquers its quest to ferry space tourists, it will be the culmination of a roughly two-decade-long journey. That’s appropriate because, together, the pair represent a new hope for the promise of space exploration, something both companies have pushed for years. SpaceX’s Starship heavy-lift launch vehicle is clad in stainless steel, a throwback look that’s evocative of early Space Age comics, cartoons, and science-fiction stories. VSS Imagine’s style is strikingly similar to another spaceship prototype in the headlines. However, as Virgin builds and flies more and more spacecraft over the upcoming years and decades, they aim to drop the ticket cost to a much more “affordable” price. In the short term, those prices are expected to climb.

The company has already sold some 600 tickets to space at roughly $250,000 each. And if all goes according to plan, it’s likely Spaceport America will be the stage for a widely covered post-launch celebration. In fact, Virgin has plans to livestream Branson’s upcoming flight (which you can watch below). However, in recent weeks, it’s finally starting to see some action. The facility was built at a steep cost to taxpayers more than a decade ago. Until recently, they’ve struggled to fly from their only currently active launch site, Spaceport America in New Mexico. Virgin Galactic says it will eventually fly a staggering 400 suborbital spaceflights per year from each of its spaceports. Still, to meet their lofty goals, the company will need to build many more spacecraft in the years ahead. “ VSS Imagine and Inspire are stunning ships that will take our future astronauts on an incredible voyage to space.” “Today we unveiled our SpaceShip III class of vehicles, marking the beginning of the Virgin Galactic fleet,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a media announcement. And the company is already building a second spacecraft of the same class, dubbed VSS Inspire. Specifically, the more efficient design is meant to make the craft easier to manufacture, maintain, and quickly turnaround between flights. The new design is more modular and should bring scalability and improved performance to Virgin Galactic’s spaceflight program, according to company officials. SpaceShip III is meant to help overcome some of the problems of its predecessor. Though SpaceShipTwo has had recent success, the craft has been beset with issues in the past, resulting in the company missing a number of publicly announced test flights. After a few moments, the spaceplane’s rocket engine allow it to climb above Earth’s atmosphere and into suborbital space. This spaceflight system sees the spaceplane carried aloft to roughly 50,000 feet in elevation before being dropped from the mothership. VSS Imagine, like the other spacecraft in Virgin’s fleet, will launch from beneath a uniquely designed carrier aircraft called WhiteKnightTwo. It’s a spaceplane clad with a mirror-like finish that’s intended to carry six passengers and two pilots just beyond the edge of space. In late March, Virgin Galactic revealed the new design for its sleek SpaceShip III prototype, called VSS Imagine. And that future spaceship is bright and shiny. Virgin’s next stepĮarlier this year, thousands of paying space tourists got a glimpse at what will be their ride to the final frontier. And though SpaceShipTwo will likely take paying customers to space in the coming years, it’s not the only spacecraft the company plans to fly.

Also known as SpaceShipTwo, this second iteration of the company’s commercial craft has been the workhorse that’s proven to the FAA that Virgin Galactic is ready to begin commercial operations. VSS Unity has been through a lot over the past year - from technical issues to unexpected groundings to, most recently, a nominal spaceflight on May 22. Though considered a test flight, this mission will serve to globally showcase what the astronaut experience will be like when the company begins flying tourists to space as early as 2022.

In just a few short days on July 11, billionaire founder of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, aims to officially become “Astronaut 001” when he flies to the edge of space aboard the company’s FAA-licensed spaceplane, VSS Unity.

Spaceship designs