Stephen Hawking Wants to Ride Virgin Galactic's New Passenger Spaceship

Virgin Galactic's new spaceship has the enthusiastic endorsement of one of the world's greatest scientists, who plans to fly on the vehicle one day. Famed cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking revealed the name of the new SpaceShipTwo suborbital craft — VSS (for Virgin Spaceship) Unity — during its star-studded unveiling ceremony Friday (Feb. 19) at Virgin's manufacturing facility here at the Mojave Air & Space Port. Unlike actor Harrison Ford and English soprano Sarah B