SpaceShipTwo

We are beginning to get the details of SpaceShipTwo, the commercial spacecraft being built by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic. The cabin, shown in mockup, is roomy and has lots of windows so passengers can get maximum enjoyment of their four minutes of weightlessness and Black Sky views. The floor is padded for those passengers that don't make it back to their seats in time. The spacecraft will have two pilots for redundancy and so someone is free to deal with any passenger problems.

Another detail is that the hybrid rocket motors will not be buring rubber and laughing gas like SpaceShipOne - but they haven't said what fuel they plan to use.

An interview with Burt Rutan on Space.com reveals that he's doing this because he doesn't think anyone else will. He really wants to go orbital and beyond, but doesn't think that will happen without a breakthrough.

“My bottom line is that we have to have some kind of breakthroughs,” Rutan explained. “What’s needed is to create an environment to have breakthroughs … to try things that may seem illogical at first.”