Burt Rutan on Mend Following Heart Surgery

SpaceShipTwo designer Burt Rutan is recovering from open heart surgery, according to a report by MSNBC’s Alan Boyle. The 64-year-old Rutan had heart surgery at UCLA Medical Center on February 7. He expects recovery to take about three months.

Rutan is leading Scaled Composite’s efforts to build a suborbital tourism vehicle for Virgin Galactic. Initial test flights are schedule for later this year, with commercial flights occurring as early as 2010.