Virgin goes Galactic

At the moment, getting into space is quite difficult with a £10 million ticket on the Russian Soyuz launcher is the only way to see the planet from the space.

Virgin Galactic is Branson's plans for the first tourist spaceships which will take paying customers into space. The two spacecraft under development are expected to have their first flights later this year and each one is capable of taking 8 passengers at a time onto the edge of the Earth's atmosphere and into space.

Virgin Galactic have been busy building its base of future astronauts with 80 having been through all the necessary merdical assessments and training.

Its expected that each flight will take 2 1/2 hours with two "pilots" and six passengers onboard. The plane/spacecraft will climb to an altitude of 110km above the earth where passengers will become weightless for a few minutes and see the curvature of the earth beneath them.

Ticket prices will be £100,000 and 200 people have booked already and another 85,000 have registered an interest in taking a flight.

Airline Booking and Information

• Read more about Virgin Atlantic or Book flights with Virgin Atlantic

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