SpaceShipTwo Christened VSS Enterprise

Yesterday, on the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Richard Branson unveiled his newly christened VSS Enterprise (formerly Spaceship Two) to the public for the first time.
You may recall Branson's Spaceship One winning the X-prize in 2004 for Suborbital Spaceflight. VSS Enterprise will be the first commercial passenger spacecraft and the first vehicle named Enterprise to travel in space.
In 1977, the first Space Shuttle was named Enterprise but was a test vehicle, never intended for actual space travel. Even so, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the cast of the original series of Star Trek were on hand at Enterprise's dedication ceremony. Shuttle Enterprise is now on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, where it is the centerpiece of the space collection.

SpaceShipTwo was built by Scaled Composites under the guidance of legendary aircraft designer Burt Rutan. The carbon composite spacecraft uses the same fuselage as its mother ship, VMS Eve. After a year of rigorous testing, VMS Eve completed flight testing earlier this fall. Rutan didn’t specify when flight testing for SpaceShipTwo would begin, though it is expected to start early next year.

Sub-orbital passenger flights could start as early as 2011 from Virgin Galactic’s space port in New Mexico which is currently under construction. Tickets for the early adopters are $200,000 for a training program culminating with the ride into space. Both Rutan and Virgin Galactic founder, Sir Richard Branson have repeatedly said they expect the prices to drop rapidly similar to many new technologies, including the early days of air travel.