Washington  - The British billionaire Richard Branson unveiled in California's Mojave desert Monday a new launch vehicle for private space flights.

Like its predecessor White Knight One the new craft, White Knight Two is more than twice as large as the original and will be used to haul Space Ship Two to edge of space to launch the first customers flying on the world's first commercial space airline.

"We're naming it Eve after my mother Eve Branson and because it stands for a first and new beginning," Branson said at the unveiling.

Eve is the mother ship for the smaller Space Ship Two spacecraft, which is designed to be projected into sub-orbital space at about 100 kilometres above the Earth.

Virgin Galactic's first commercial space flights are scheduled for 2010 and reservations are going for 200,000 dollars, which buys a passenger a two-hour flight and about five minutes of zero gravity.

The carbon-fiber aircraft have been built by the Spaceship Company, a joint venture between Virgin and designer Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites group.

The launch craft is designed to carry the actual space capsule up more than 15,000 metres and release it. Then the new spacecraft's rocket propulsion continues the journey. (dpa)