Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing company, is partnering with Virgin Galactic in the design and manufacturing of two next generation motherships. The agreement, announced Wednesday, July 6^th, will enable Aurora to immediately begin development on the aircraft.

Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said: “Our next generation motherships are integral to scaling our operations. They will be faster to produce, easier to maintain and will allow us to fly substantially more missions each year. Supported by the scale and strength of Boeing, Aurora is the ideal manufacturing partner for us as we build our fleet to support 400 flights per year at Spaceport America.”

Read the full press release here.