Virgin Galactic's New SpaceShipTwo Puts it Back in the Space Race

[Narrator] More than a year after a deadly crash

Virgin Galactic is back to it's mission

of exploring the solar system.

Well, kinda.

Richard Branson's company is really about

sending wealthy tourists into suborbital space.

And it's not launching anybody just yet.

But today, it rolled out SpaceShipTwo

number two.

The key innovation in this spacecraft,

designed by aerospace master Burt Rutan,

is this the system that folds the tail up and down.

Changing the ship's position as it re-enters the atmosphere.

During an October 2014 test flight,

the first SpaceShipTwo broke apart in midair

after a pilot activated that system too soon.

Like it's doomed predecessor,

the new SpaceShipTwo will be carried into the air

by the double-hulled WhiteKnightTwo.

At 50,000 feet SpaceShipTwo is released,

fires its rocket, and shoots straight up and out of here.

The new SpaceShipTwo meant to carry paying customers,

works the same way with a few design tweaks.

The key difference is that the controls have been changed

so that no one can repeat that pilot's deadly mistake.

Ultimately, the idea is to carry passengers

to 62 miles above the Earth's surface,

giving them four minutes of weightlessness

and official astronaut status.

Of course, there's a whole lot of testing

to do before any passengers are welcome aboard.

And now that Virgin Galactic finally has a space ship again

it can get back to making that happen.