Virgin to Go to Space
AP 2004/09/27
London
British entrepreneur Richard Branson said Monday that his Virgin company plans to launch commercial space flights over the next few years.
The Virgin transport, entertainment and communications group has signed an agreement with pioneering aviation designer Burt Rutan to build an aircraft based on Rutan's SpaceShipOne vessel, Branson said.
SpaceShipOne cracked the barrier to manned commercial space flight in June by flying 98,547 meters, or about 99 kilometers above Earth, just a little more than 120 meters above the distance scientists widely consider to be the boundary of space. The flight lasted 90 minutes.
SpaceShipOne's effort was bankrolled by billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
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| British billionaire Sir Richard Branson holds a scale model of a spacecraft following a news conference in central London. Branson announced that Virgin Group would begin offering space flights in 2007 for groups of up to five passengers. Reuters |
Virgin said its agreement to license technology from Allen's company, Mohave Aerospace Ventures, could be worth up to 14 million pounds ($25 million) over the next 15 years, depending on the number of spaceships built by Virgin. The company said it planned to begin construction of the first vessel, VSS Enterprise, next year, and would invest about 60 million pounds ($108 million) in spaceships and ground infrastructure for the venture.
"Virgin has been in talks with Paul Allen and Bert throughout this year and in the early hours of Saturday signed a historical deal to license SpaceShipOne's technology to build the world's first private spaceship to go into commercial operating service," Branson told a news conference.
The new service will be called Virgin Galactic and expects to fly 3,000 new astronauts in its first five years. Fares will start at 115,000 pounds ($208,000) for a suborbital flight, including three days' training.
Branson said the business would "allow every country in the world to have their own astronauts rather than the privileged few."
"Virgin Galactic will be run as a business, but a business with the sole purpose of making space travel more and more affordable," Branson said.
"Those privileged space pioneers who can afford to take our first flights will not only have the most awesome experience of their lives, but by stepping up to the plate first they will bring the dream of space travel for many millions closer to reality."
Virgin Group began as a record label, and now sells everything from soft drinks to bridal gowns, and even runs a train service and mobile phone network.
It operates several airlines -- British-based Virgin Atlantic and budget carriers Virgin Express in Europe and Virgin Blue in Australia -- and plans to launch a low-budget U.S. carrier next year.
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