While Wired’s new cover story has obviously taken the prize in terms of current Virgin Galactic coverage, BBC News also had a story recently with some interesting details about the new spaceship itself.  

SpaceShipTwo will not look anything like its predecessor. For one thing, Rutan must fix a stability problem caused by SpaceShipOne’s high upswept wings.

For another, Rutan and Branson plan a ship of luxury, with service and amenities that at least match Virgin Atlantic’s upper-class travel service. And that, as any airline flier knows, starts with leg room.

Rutan said SpaceShipTwo would have about the same diameter crew cabin as a Gulfstream V business jet, which measures slightly more than 6ft in height and 7ft in width (1.9m by 2.2m).

"Services and amenities matching Virgin Atlantic’s upper-class" sounds good on paper, but seems pretty unlikely. As I’ve said before, flying Upper Class was the only time I wished a London-to-LA flight was two or three times longer! No in-flight maseusses on Virgin Galactic either.   So really, the best luxury would be to fly Virgin Galactic customers to the Mojave on Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class, from wherever they are in the world (just as Virgin Atlantic picks up its Upper Class passengers in limousines and shuttles them to the airport).