 Today, Virgin Galactic unveiled its new Spaceship 2. It's the vehicle the company will use to replace the old Spaceship 2, which crashed in 2014 during a routine test flight. This vehicle is basically the same as its predecessor. It's a space plane that will launch and return to Earth the same way. But there are a few key changes, mainly to make it safer and to prevent in-flight error. Now, this vehicle is the one that Virgin Galactic will use to potentially send people into suborbital space someday. Together, we can make space accessible in a way that has only been dreamt of before now. And by doing that, we can truly bring positive change to life on Earth. She is destined to fly not just once to space, but perhaps thousands of times. Reusability is key as spaceflight is to become a regular, affordable activity. Virgin Galactic is the space tourism venture of British entrepreneur Richard Branson. It's one of a handful of companies racing to offer private citizens the chance to escape Earth's atmosphere. Since the company was founded in 2004, hundreds of the rich and famous have paid the $250,000 price to reserve a seat, including Ashton Kutcher, Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Bieber. But the company has been beset with delays. On Halloween in 2014, one pilot was killed and another injured during a test flight of SpaceShipTwo above the Mojave Desert. An NTSB investigation found that the cause of the crash was due in part to pilot error. It marked the first time someone had died during a private spaceflight test, and the company's only vehicle at the time was completely destroyed. Since the accident, Virgin Galactic has been working hard to build a new, safer version of SpaceShipTwo. The spaceplane is designed to take six passengers and two pilots into suborbital space. But rather than launching from the ground like most rockets, the vehicle is lifted up to an altitude of 50,000 feet by a carrier aircraft called White Knight Two. There, SpaceShipTwo deploys and ignites its rocket engine for 70 seconds. During a crew flight, the vehicle is meant to speed up to above Mach 3 and reach a top altitude of 70 miles high. This allows passengers to experience a few minutes of weightlessness in suborbit. Then to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, the vehicle must reposition its wings. It's a maneuver known as feathering. The pilots must pull two levers while in space, and the wings move from their horizontal position to a 65-degree upright angle. This helps create enough atmospheric drag to slow down the spaceplane during its descent. The wings eventually shift back to their normal position so that SpaceShipTwo can be brought to a runway. The feathering system is crucial for SpaceShipTwo's safe descent, but it also helped cause the 2014 crash. One of the pilots unlocked the feathering system too early during flight. This caused the wings to shift prematurely even though the pilots hadn't pulled any levers. And the wings are only meant to shift in space after the engine has cut off and the vehicle is moving much more slowly. Instead, the wings rotated when SpaceShipTwo was accelerating at transonic speeds, placing too many g-forces on the vehicle and causing it to break apart. One of the key differences with this new SpaceShipTwo is that there are fail-safes in place to prevent the pilots from unlocking the feathering system too early. We've added in a mechanical system that prevents our pilots from inadvertently, whether through a mistake or anything else, during this very brief period of flight where you don't want that feather to deploy. It makes it so you can't deploy it inadvertently during that time period. Without making it so that during all the other phases of flight, when it is a safety system, without making it so you have to click through three computer menus in order to activate something that you want to be able to activate in a hurry. But whether or not these changes work remains to be seen. Flight testing is scheduled to take place later this year and that's when we'll really know if this is a safer vehicle than before.
 Today, Virgin Galactic unveiled its new Spaceship 2.
 It's the vehicle the company will use to replace the old Spaceship 2, which crashed in 2014
 during a routine test flight.
 This vehicle is basically the same as its predecessor.
 It's a space plane that will launch and return to Earth the same way.
 But there are a few key changes, mainly to make it safer and to prevent in-flight error.
 Now, this vehicle is the one that Virgin Galactic will use to potentially send people into suborbital
 space someday.
 Together, we can make space accessible in a way that has only been dreamt of before
 now.
 And by doing that, we can truly bring positive change to life on Earth.
 She is destined to fly not just once to space, but perhaps thousands of times.
 Reusability is key as spaceflight is to become a regular, affordable activity.
 Virgin Galactic is the space tourism venture of British entrepreneur Richard Branson.
 It's one of a handful of companies racing to offer private citizens the chance to escape
 Earth's atmosphere.
 Since the company was founded in 2004, hundreds of the rich and famous have paid the $250,000
 price to reserve a seat, including Ashton Kutcher, Leonardo DiCaprio and Justin Bieber.
 But the company has been beset with delays.
 On Halloween in 2014, one pilot was killed and another injured during a test flight of
 SpaceShipTwo above the Mojave Desert.
 An NTSB investigation found that the cause of the crash was due in part to pilot error.
 It marked the first time someone had died during a private spaceflight test, and the
 company's only vehicle at the time was completely destroyed.
 Since the accident, Virgin Galactic has been working hard to build a new, safer version
 of SpaceShipTwo.
 The spaceplane is designed to take six passengers and two pilots into suborbital space.
 But rather than launching from the ground like most rockets, the vehicle is lifted up
 to an altitude of 50,000 feet by a carrier aircraft called White Knight Two.
 There, SpaceShipTwo deploys and ignites its rocket engine for 70 seconds.
 During a crew flight, the vehicle is meant to speed up to above Mach 3 and reach a top
 altitude of 70 miles high.
 This allows passengers to experience a few minutes of weightlessness in suborbit.
 Then to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, the vehicle must reposition its wings.
 It's a maneuver known as feathering.
 The pilots must pull two levers while in space, and the wings move from their horizontal position
 to a 65-degree upright angle.
 This helps create enough atmospheric drag to slow down the spaceplane during its descent.
 The wings eventually shift back to their normal position so that SpaceShipTwo can be brought
 to a runway.
 The feathering system is crucial for SpaceShipTwo's safe descent, but it also helped cause the
 2014 crash.
 One of the pilots unlocked the feathering system too early during flight.
 This caused the wings to shift prematurely even though the pilots hadn't pulled any
 levers.
 And the wings are only meant to shift in space after the engine has cut off and the vehicle
 is moving much more slowly.
 Instead, the wings rotated when SpaceShipTwo was accelerating at transonic speeds, placing
 too many g-forces on the vehicle and causing it to break apart.
 One of the key differences with this new SpaceShipTwo is that there are fail-safes in place to prevent
 the pilots from unlocking the feathering system too early.
 We've added in a mechanical system that prevents our pilots from inadvertently, whether through
 a mistake or anything else, during this very brief period of flight where you don't want
 that feather to deploy.
 It makes it so you can't deploy it inadvertently during that time period.
 Without making it so that during all the other phases of flight, when it is a safety system,
 without making it so you have to click through three computer menus in order to activate
 something that you want to be able to activate in a hurry.
 But whether or not these changes work remains to be seen.
 Flight testing is scheduled to take place later this year and that's when we'll really
 know if this is a safer vehicle than before.