Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (Tourist SpaceShip)
Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic have unveiled their new tourist spaceship, SpaceShipTwo in a promotional concept video.
Test flights are planned for next year, with commercial passengers being taken into space as early as 2009. The spaceship is currently being built in California, it is quite small - it will carry only 6 passengers and 2 crew members. Like a private jet, that goes into space. 
It will cost around $200,000 for a 2 hour, 100 kilometre journey into space on the spaceship. Despite the high price, there is already a lot of people on the waiting list for the Virgin Galactic trip.Susan Newsam, of Virgin Galactic, told BBC News: "We have 200 people that have committed to fly, that's quite something considering that we haven't actually unveiled the real spaceship yet, and we certainly know that many more people will be signing up after they see the spaceship" "We are planning to fly 500 people in the first year of operations and 50,000 in the next 10 years. What are real aim is to try and bring space travel to everyone, so everyone has that opportunity." There is three days of rigorous training and bonding required for those wishing to fly on the Virgin Galactic, including G-Force Aclimatisation - being subjected to g-forces in a spinning contraption while on the ground. 
The prototype craft, SpaceShipOne, has flown three times into space successfully. Pictured on the right Richard Branson with SpaceShipOne, Branson licensed the technology from its makers in order to set up Virgin Galactic in autumn 2004.New CGI Video of a SpaceShipTwo Flight >> Links: Virgin Galactic site SpaceShipTwo BBC News Video report 15/02/07 Email this story to a friend  Add this link to:            
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