UK: Sir Richard Branson plans to launch the world's first passenger service to space in 2007, offering zero gravity flights for £110,000 (€162,000).
Sir Richard, whose Virgin empire stretches from planes and trains to vodka, music and personal finance, is teaming up with Microsoft co-founder Mr Paul Allen to build five, fish-shaped capsules for the two- to three-hour flights.
The flights will climb to about 130 km, roughly 10 times higher than regular commercial planes, and include four minutes of weightlessness, views of the horizon from 1,200 miles away and possibly a gin and tonic, if granted a liquor license.
Sir Richard said he planned to take the inaugural flight on the VSS Enterprise.
Virgin Galactic will be the latest offshoot of Sir Richard business empire, which started in mail-order recorded music in the 1970s. It will invest $100 million in ground infrastructure and spacecraft capable of carrying five passengers.
Sir Richard said he planned to use the proceeds from the first well-heeled customers to bring prices down in the next few years to make space travel affordable to the regular tourist. "The orbital hotel will happen," he said. Virgin expects 3,000 customers in the first five years.
Specialists said commercial space venture was long overdue and technically feasible but warned the initial price may be too high to attract enough spacefarers. "The world is certainly ready, it is a question at what price? It is at the high end of what people in the sector felt is going to be attractive," Mr Pat Norris, chairman of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Space Group, said.
Sir Richard's Virgin Group will license technology owned by Mr Allen's company, called Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which developed the world's first private manned spaceship, SpaceShipOne. SpaceShipOne became the first private manned spaceship in June when pilot Mike Melvill took it up 100 km.
The new spacecraft will be modelled along the lines of SpaceShipOne .
It is hoped the spacecraft fairs better than another innovation of Sir Richard's which began yesterday. Passengers experienced delays on the new tilting Virgin Pendolino trains, designed to travel at a speed of 125mph, on the Wales and Glasgow lines.