MOJAVE, Calif. — The space tourism race marked a milestone
Monday as British mogul Sir Richard Branson and American
aerospace designer Burt Rutan waved to a crowd from inside the
cabin of an exotic jet that will carry a passenger spaceship to
launch altitude.  The photo-op was the public unveiling of the
White Knight Two mothership before a crowd of engineers,
dignitaries and space enthusiasts at the Mojave Air & Space Port
in the high desert north of Los Angeles.  The four-engine jet,
with its 140-foot single wing, is an engineering marvel. The
space between its twin fuselages is where SpaceShipTwo, the
passenger rocket being built for Branson's Virgin Galactic, will
be mounted.  White Knight Two, billed as the world's largest
all-carbon-composite airplane, is "one of the most beautiful and
extraordinary aviation vehicles ever developed," Branson
proclaimed.  White Knight Two is the brainchild of Rutan, who
made history in 2004 when his SpaceShipOne became the first
private, manned craft to reach space. Spac