Mary Carol
27-09-04, 07:20 PM
Mon 27 September, 2004 17:15
"As Richard Branson Astronaut rather than Richard Branson entrepreneur, my wife will find me even harder to live with."
~Richard Branson
By Michael Smith
LONDON (Reuters) - Entrepreneur and part-time daredevil Richard Branson plans to launch the world's first passenger service to space in 2007, offering zero-gravity flights for 110,000 pounds.
Branson, whose Virgin empire stretches from planes and trains to vodka, music and personal finance, is teaming up with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to build five, fish-shaped capsules for the two-to-three hour flights.
The flights will climb to about 130 kilometres roughly six times higher than regular commercial planes, and include 4 minutes of weightlessness, views of the horizon from 1,200 miles away, and possibly a gin and tonic if granted a liquor license.
"I'm over the moon," Branson told reporters on Monday. "As Richard Branson Astronaut rather than Richard Branson entrepreneur, my wife will find me even harder to live with.".
Branson, whose headline-grabbing stunts have included attempts to fly round-the-world in a balloon or speed across the Atlantic in a powerboat, said he planned to take the inaugural flight on the "VSS Enterprise".
Virgin Galactic will be the latest offshoot of Branson's business empire, which started in mail-order recorded music in the 1970s. It will invest $100 million (55 million pounds) in ground infrastructure and spacecraft capable of carrying five passengers.
ORBITAL HOTEL
Branson 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," Pat Norris, chairman of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Space Group, told Reuters.
Branson's Virgin Group will license technology owned by Paul Allen's company called Mojave Aerospace Ventures which developed the world's first private manned spaceship, SpaceShipOne, which made its inaugural flight in June.
The spacecraft, designed by Burt Rutan who also hopes to join Branson on the flight, will be based on SpaceShipOne, a plump fish-shaped capsule with stout wings and several circular windows on the nose.
The SpaceShipOne launch involved take-off attached to a broad-winged mothership called White Knight, also designed by Rutan, and then release like a cruise missile as the spacecraft's own rocket engine ignites.
Rutan said the spacecraft would be safer than early commercial airline travel and flights would not be limited to the young and superfit.
"My father is 87 and I certainly want him to fly," Rutan told reporters.
The Virgin empire has agreed to a licensing deal with Mojave worth up to 14 million pounds over 15 years.
The first flights will be launched from North America's Mojave Desert but Virgin is looking at setting up more launch sites in Florida and offshore in Australia and Singapore if it can get permission to export the technology from the United States.
Space tourism does already exist, though not as a scheduled service and only for the super-wealthy. U.S. entrepreneur Dennis Tito and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth paid Russia some $20 million each for their ride to space.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=J5A0QCH44FMPSC RBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=591702§ion=news
"As Richard Branson Astronaut rather than Richard Branson entrepreneur, my wife will find me even harder to live with."
~Richard Branson
By Michael Smith
LONDON (Reuters) - Entrepreneur and part-time daredevil Richard Branson plans to launch the world's first passenger service to space in 2007, offering zero-gravity flights for 110,000 pounds.
Branson, whose Virgin empire stretches from planes and trains to vodka, music and personal finance, is teaming up with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to build five, fish-shaped capsules for the two-to-three hour flights.
The flights will climb to about 130 kilometres roughly six times higher than regular commercial planes, and include 4 minutes of weightlessness, views of the horizon from 1,200 miles away, and possibly a gin and tonic if granted a liquor license.
"I'm over the moon," Branson told reporters on Monday. "As Richard Branson Astronaut rather than Richard Branson entrepreneur, my wife will find me even harder to live with.".
Branson, whose headline-grabbing stunts have included attempts to fly round-the-world in a balloon or speed across the Atlantic in a powerboat, said he planned to take the inaugural flight on the "VSS Enterprise".
Virgin Galactic will be the latest offshoot of Branson's business empire, which started in mail-order recorded music in the 1970s. It will invest $100 million (55 million pounds) in ground infrastructure and spacecraft capable of carrying five passengers.
ORBITAL HOTEL
Branson 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," Pat Norris, chairman of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Space Group, told Reuters.
Branson's Virgin Group will license technology owned by Paul Allen's company called Mojave Aerospace Ventures which developed the world's first private manned spaceship, SpaceShipOne, which made its inaugural flight in June.
The spacecraft, designed by Burt Rutan who also hopes to join Branson on the flight, will be based on SpaceShipOne, a plump fish-shaped capsule with stout wings and several circular windows on the nose.
The SpaceShipOne launch involved take-off attached to a broad-winged mothership called White Knight, also designed by Rutan, and then release like a cruise missile as the spacecraft's own rocket engine ignites.
Rutan said the spacecraft would be safer than early commercial airline travel and flights would not be limited to the young and superfit.
"My father is 87 and I certainly want him to fly," Rutan told reporters.
The Virgin empire has agreed to a licensing deal with Mojave worth up to 14 million pounds over 15 years.
The first flights will be launched from North America's Mojave Desert but Virgin is looking at setting up more launch sites in Florida and offshore in Australia and Singapore if it can get permission to export the technology from the United States.
Space tourism does already exist, though not as a scheduled service and only for the super-wealthy. U.S. entrepreneur Dennis Tito and South African businessman Mark Shuttleworth paid Russia some $20 million each for their ride to space.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=J5A0QCH44FMPSC RBAELCFEY?type=topNews&storyID=591702§ion=news