Virgin Galactic looking for the right stuff

Virgin Galactic, the spaceline founded by Sir Richard Branson, has put out a call for pilots.

The Antelope Valley Press says the company is looking for pilots to operate its SpaceShipTwo spacecraft and WhiteKnightTwo mother ship.

Those selected would fly during development testing currently under way and commercial operations at some point in the future.

The company is looking for test pilots who graduated from a respectable flight school and who have a minimum of 3,000 hours of flying experience. Prior spaceflight experience is a plus, but not required.

Virgin Galactic plans to fly tourists on brief suborbital flights at a cost of $200,000 per person.

SpaceShipTwo is based on the design of SpaceShipOne, the first private manned craft to reach space.