Aurora to build two new motherships for Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic, an aerospace and space travel company, has announced an agreement with Aurora Flight Sciences (Aurora), a Boeing company, to partner in the design and manufacture of the company’s next-generation motherships. The mothership is the air launch carrier aircraft in Virgin Galactic’s space flight system that carries the spaceship to its release altitude of approximately 50,000 feet.

Headquartered in Virginia, Aurora brings more than 30 years of experience building cutting-edge aircraft from concept to delivery and specialises in novel aircraft configurations and complex composites. Virgin Galactic has been working with Aurora for the past several months to develop design specifications as well as workforce and resource requirements in preparation for this long-term project. The two-vehicle contract will enable Aurora to immediately begin development.

Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said: “Our next-generation motherships are integral to scaling our operations. They will be faster to produce, easier to maintain and will allow us to fly substantially more missions each year. Supported by the scale and strength of Boeing, Aurora is the ideal manufacturing partner for us as we build our fleet to support 400 flights per year at Spaceport America.”