Mary-Louise Hoffman
Boeing‘s Aurora Flight Sciences subsidiary has signed a partnership agreement to help Virgin Galactic design and manufacture two spaceship carrier airplanes for use beginning in 2025.
Both motherships are intended to carry and release spacecraft at 50,000 feet from the ground, Virgin Galactic said Thursday.
Virginia-based Aurora will build the motherships at its West Virginia and Mississippi facilities.
Virgin Galactic, the commercial space venture formed by Richard Branson‘s Virgin Group, expects to start flying payloads with its first Delta-class spaceship in three years.
Todd Citron, chief technology officer of Boeing, said the company seeks to help advance human spaceflight through the partnership.
The aerospace and defense contractor’s venture capital arm HorizonX invested $20 million in Virgin Galactic in October 2019.
