Passenger space travel unveiled

Sir Richard Branson has unveiled the model for his new spacecraft which he plans to put into the commercial travel industry.

A two-hour flight on the SpaceShipTwo will cost £102,000 and will include four to five minutes of weightlessness.

The craft is under construction in the desert in California and is said to be 60-70 per cent complete.

Mr Branson, who owns Virgin Galactic, the company to offer the space tourism, said: "2008 will really be the year of the spaceship."

The new spacecraft follows on from the SpaceCraftOne model, which won the $10 million (£5 million) Ansari X prize in 2004 when it delivered the pilot to the edge of space and back twice in a week.

The flight time will be about two and a half hours and it is thought that passenger flights will be in operation in late 2009, or early 2010.

Currently people pay £15.4 million for ten days at the International Space Station to get the space experience.

Digg    Reddit    Facebook    Tweet This