Space flight 'plans complete'
2005-04-01 13:15
Mumbai - Flamboyant British tycoon Richard Branson said on Thursday his Virgin group's ambitious plans for commercial space flights are complete and the first fee-paying astronaut will fly with him into orbit in the next 30 months.
"The plan for the new spaceship is complete and work on the project will commence in the next three months, with the first commercial space flight to take off in two-and-half years," Branson told reporters in Mumbai, India's financial hub.
Branson landed in Mumbai on Thursday on board the inaugural flight of his Virgin Atlantic Airways from London. The airline will operate three flights weekly between the two cities.
Branson said the aim was to make forays into space both safe and cheap.
Space travel for the masses
"We want to make space travel as affordable as possible to people from across the world," he said.
Virgin Atlantic last year signed a technology licensing deal with US company Mojave Aerospace Ventures. Mojave was behind SpaceShipOne, which in June 2004 became the first private manned craft to travel into space.
"I, with my parents and my son and my daughter will travel in the first space flight," said the 54-year-old tycoon, who made his fortune with the Virgin pop record label before branching out into air travel, railways, telecommunications and a host of other enterprises.
Commenting on the core airline business, Branson said Virgin Atlantic had laid out aggressive plans in many international markets, including the United States, India, Nigeria and the Bahamas.
"The US still does not have good-quality airlines. We will expand our wings there," Branson said.
He said Virgin Atlantic would also help build a national airline for Nigeria.
"Nigeria, which is one of the largest oil producers, does not have a national airline and we will help build it. An airline that would be best in Africa and make the Africans proud," Branson said.
He hoped the governments of Britain and India adopt an aggressive "open skies" policy so that airlines could launch as many flights between the two countries as possible.