Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic's one-of-a-kind mothership — every spaceflight starts under her wing
Tail numbers N348MS · N202VG
VMS Eve N348MS
Virgin Galactic's mothership — a four-engine, twin-fuselage catamaran of an aircraft with a spaceship-sized gap in the middle. Eve carries the spaceplane to 45,000 feet and lets it drop; the rocket does the rest. She is the only WhiteKnightTwo ever completed, and every Virgin Galactic passenger's ride to space starts under her wing.
Eve is named after Richard Branson's mother, who was a ballet dancer and air hostess before her son owned an airline.
VSS Unity N202VG
The spaceplane itself. Unity rides to 45,000 feet under VMS Eve, drops, and lights a hybrid rocket motor for a minute: Mach 3, straight up, to the edge of space, then the tail booms feather like a shuttlecock for the fall back home. She carried Richard Branson to space in July 2021 and flew her last paying passengers in June 2024. Retired, then not: since May 2026 she is back in the air on glide flights, training the pilots who will fly the next ships.
Unity has been above 89 km (295,000 ft) at Mach 3.04. On your map she is a glider: a few minutes of silent descent after Eve lets her go, with no engine note at all.
Quick answers
What are the tail numbers of Virgin Galactic?
N348MS (Scaled Composites WhiteKnightTwo), N202VG (Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo).
What kind of aircraft is Virgin Galactic?
Scaled Composites WhiteKnightTwo, Scaled Composites SpaceShipTwo.
Are they still flying?
2 of 2 are active.
The type
More space & science
Will Virgin Galactic cross your map?
Famous airframes wear a gold star on Bogey's live map. If one of these flies near you, tap it and it joins your collection with its story.
- A live map of every aircraft around you, at its real position.
- Tap one and it flips into a trading card: type, airline, route, photo.
- Catch rare ones. Build a collection. Climb the leaderboard.
