First class to the moon

2004-09-27 11:35

London - British airline magnate Richard Branson announced a hugely ambitious plan on Monday for the world's first commercial space flights, saying he would send "thousands" of fee-paying astronauts into orbit in the next five years.

Branson, a flamboyant and famously publicity-hungry tycoon, said his Virgin Atlantic airline had signed a technology licensing deal with the US company behind SpaceShipOne, which in June became the first private manned craft to travel to space.

Virgin signed an agreement worth $25m with Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which owns the technology behind SpaceShipOne, it announced.

Would-be space tourists will pay fees starting at $207 000 (R1.33m) and receive three days of flight training before taking the real trip.

Addressing reporters in central London, Branson said that the new firm - Virgin Galactic - would launch its maiden flight in only three years, and that he would be on the very first trip into space.

"Within five years, Virgin Galactic will have created over 3 000 new astronauts from many countries," Branson said, speaking alongside US aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, who designed and built SpaceShipOne.

"We plan to construct launch pads for commercial space travel in a number of countries over the next few years."

Such a vastly ambitious plan is typical of the 54-year-old serial entrepreneur, who first made a fortune with the Virgin pop record label before branching out into air travel, railways and a string of other ventures.

In a near-messianic speech, Branson pledged that his principal aim was to make space travel possible for ordinary people.

"Virgin Galactic will be run as a business, but as a business with a sole purpose of making space travel more and more affordable to people throughout the world," he said.

For years, Branson said, he had "dreamt of seeing the beauty of our planet from space".

He said: "Burt and I will be fortunate enough to have fulfilled our own personal dreams and to experience all of this on the inaugural flight over Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise in three years' time."

SpaceShipOne shot into the history books in June when it became the first non-government-financed manned spaceship to travel beyond the 100km boundary of space and back again.

The craft now aims to win the so-called "X-Prize", a $10m bounty on offer for sending a private craft capable of carrying three people into space twice.

SpaceShipOne is scheduled to fly again this Wednesday, and then once more on October 4.

- AFP