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SpaceShipTwo unveiled, high hopes for the future

SpaceShipTwo unveiled, high hopes for the future
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Virgin Galactic unveiled their "baby" Unity Friday.

Mike Moses, Senior Vice President of Operations, said many improvements have been made to the new version of SpaceShipTwo.

This includes new safety features to keep the wings from moving prematurely. An investigation into the crash in October of 2014 ruled the wings moved to early on the previous SpaceShipTwo and that's what caused the it to be ripped apart.

Other improvements, Moses said, involve an easier more efficient building process for the aircraft, as it follows the evolution of the previous prototypes.

When it comes to what's next? Moses said they don't have a hard and fast schedule but say they are treating every flight like a test flight. More sensors have been put back onto the ship to make it safer and easier for the crew to monitor.

This will also create a fast track to get this ship to the point the last version was at quicker.

Right now the ship isn't fully functional but the crew decided to unveil it Friday, so it doesn't come as a surprise when they take it out of the hangar to start testing.

Video courtesy: Virgin Galactic and TVC

Bakersfield, CA

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