January 23, 2008 11:56 AM PST
Inside Scaled Composites' factory in Mojave, Calif., Rutan (second from left) stands in front of the in-progress SpaceShipTwo with engineers (from left) Luke Colby, Jim Tighe, and Matt Stinemetze. Rutan is notorious for keeping the goings-on of his factory secret; at Wednesday's press conference in New York, Sir Richard Branson said that "Burt has been extremely reluctant to let anyone in his factory, especially me. He knows I'm terrible at keeping secrets."
Photo by Thierry Boccon-Gibod, courtesy of Virgin Galactic
