On Friday, the spaceflight company Virgin Galactic unveiled a new spaceplane.
VSS Unity is the flashy new sibling of the VSS Enterprise, which was destroyed in a fatal accident in 2014.
The company hopes to one day carry tourists into suborbital space.
Unity is not much different from its predecessor, but one of the ship's key improvements is designed to prevent another disaster like the November 2014 accident that killed pilot Michael Alsbury. At the time, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded that Alsbury deployed a feathering reentry system too early and that Virgin Galactic hadn't planned ahead for such human errors.
Ladies and gentlemen, please meet the new #SpaceShipTwo. More photos and info coming soon. pic.twitter.com/cNCTDj3cHv
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) February 19, 2016The new spaceplane has safeguards in place to make sure that doesn't happen again, and the company is emphasizing a renewed commitment to careful testing.
The spaceplane has safeguards in place to make sure that doesn't happen again, and the company is emphasizing a renewed commitment to careful testing.
The new spaceplane suggests that Virgin Galactic is not out of the private spaceflight game just yet. And it still has at least one willing customer:
Msg from Prof. Hawking: “If I am able to go & if Richard will still take me, I would be very proud to fly on this spaceship.” #SpaceShipTwo
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) February 19, 2016SEE ALSO: This $14-billion machine is set to usher in a new era of nuclear fusion power
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Watch Jeff Bezos' spaceflight company make history with a monumental rocket landing