Watch this space
The future has arrived - come 2011, the world's first private space-liner Virgin Galactic will begin its first commercial flights into space and 300 passengers have already booked their seats...
It was always going to happen. Space travel for average Joes has been in the pipeline for the last few years and now, with Richard Branson at the helm, it is becoming a reality from 2011.
Virgin has invested £238 million into their private space tour programme and is in the midst of planning their first commercial space flight on SpaceShip2.
Three hundred tickets have already been sold for the flight, which will take two and a half hours. Nine of the ‘space tourists' who have already bought one of the £136,000 tickets are from the Middle East.
Virgin Galactic CEO Stephen Attenborough, who is also Commercial Director of Virgin Group, said, "We have customers from the UAE and 40 other countries around the world.
"This shows it is a global desire for
people who want to become astronauts and visit outer space," added Mr
Attenborough.
"The first flight on SpaceShip2 after completing the
test-pilot programme, which will last two years, will carry six passengers with
two pilots.
"The spaceship is larger than SpaceShip1, and has a room per person. It is the largest spaceship ever built and the reason is that our passengers do not want to sit in a small cockpit. They need to leave their seats for better view of space," he added.
Whilst initially Virgin Galactic is planning to run a weekly flight that will gradually be increased to one a day and then two a day.
"The size of the spaceship itself is like the interior of a large business jet," said Mr Attenborough.
"It has lots of big windows. It is a sub-orbital spaceship; you blast into space, get a few minutes to float in zero gravity to see the fantastic view of the earth and comeback as a fully-fledged astronaut."
"We are able to do it for a small fraction of the cost, and we will bring down the prices. Any people, without any experience, can do it.
"You don't need special training or have a
PhD. It takes only a week of work.
"You can book it now. The oldest person we have ready to fly
is 88 years old and the youngest is 22," he added.
The first space flights will launch from facilities based in the USA and there are plans afoot to have the ships lunching from other countries in the near future, including the UAE.
The new flights are the start of a whole new world of affordable space travel. Virgin have already said that they would like to take scientists into space for research, plus tourists who want to see what s going on up there.
Mr Attenborough said, "Our first market is tourism. The research we have done proves there is absolute room for other players in the market.
"At the moment there are no other players and we are the only ones in the space tourism business," he said.
Space ships are just the start. Virgin has hinted that they see space tourist number rising rapidly- from 500 tourists in 2011 to 50,000 in ten years time.
Space hotels will also become a reality within the next few
years, added the firm.
Picture by Jaime Olmo