CO2-phobe Richard Branson planning to send customers on fossil-fueled joy rides into space

RTÉ News: Tourist space vehicle unveiled

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has taken the wraps off the vehicle that it hopes will launch tourists into Earth's atmosphere.

Guests including Arnold Schwarzenegger were at the company's spaceport in the Mojave Desert to see WhiteKnightTwo unveiled today.

The craft, called a Mother Ship, will not enter space itself but climb to a height of 15,240 metres. It will then launch a second vehicle, SpaceShipTwo, into sub-orbit.

Six passengers will travel at four times the speed of sound to a height officially classified as space, experiencing around five minutes of weightlessness before gliding back to earth.