The Future Is Now: Virgin Galactic Unveils SpaceShipTwo

People, the future has arrived.

Virgin Galactic last night unveiled its space tourism ship, SpaceShipTwo, which will allow people to launch into space after training for only three days. The ship will change shapes once it's flying in space to allow it to return to the Earth like a glider and land on a normal runway. It can re-enter the atmosphere, says its designer and winner of Virgin's X Prize, Burt Rutan, in "a carefree fashion."

Here are the first photos of the SpaceShipTwo and some photos from last night's stormy launch.

The ship, along with Virgin Galactic's space tourism operation, will be based at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The new shuttles are in extensive testing before they start running commercially. "Our first Virgin Galactic astronauts are booking their place in history as pioneers of a new space age," says Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson, in an intro video, below.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, emphasized that this is about more than just tourism. "Access to space really does matter for the future of mankind, and currently we only have 50-year-old space systems to get there, which are very expensive and very environmentally damaging," he says in the video. "But if we can get robust, safe and, more importantly, environmentally benign and very cheap access to space, we can do things up there that were never imagined a few years ago."

Photo courtesy of Pink Sherbet Photography, via Flickr