Ceilidh

Michael Zey
futurist3000@aol.com

Joining with Burt Rutan, the aircraft designer, and Paul G. Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, Sir Richard will form a company called Virgin Galactic to offer suborbital flights into space. During the three-hour trip, passengers will be able to view the earth from 80 miles up, experience weightlessness for around four minutes and perhaps have a cocktail.

The first ship will be called the V.S.S. Enterprise. A Web site for Virgin Galactic said the company expected to start taking deposits next year. Virgin said it expected 3,000 passengers to sign up for the pilot program.

"I've dreamt about it since I was a child," Mr. Branson said in a phone interview, referring to his interest in space travel.

Analysts and aviation experts predict that space tourism could become a lucrative commercial niche in the future; the cost of government programs prohibit all but the extremely wealthy from traveling into space. So far, only two businessmen have done so, paying $20 million apiece for the privilege.

Mr. Rutan made aviation history in June when his rocket, called SpaceShipOne, launched from the Mojave Desert in California, left the Earth's atmosphere and became the first nongovernment craft to enter space. The rocket has a toylike appearance, its top dotted with portholes and its underbelly speckled with stars, and two finlike rudders off the sides. The venture was financed in part by Mr. Allen, who invested about $20 million in SpaceShipOne.

The new Virgin venture is aimed at giving Mr. Rutan's ship a greater future. The ship "could have made a few flights, then gone to the Smithsonian," Sir Richard said, "which is what Burt feared."

Aside from the launching of SpaceShipOne, "this is one of the most exciting days of my life," Mr. Rutan said in a statement Monday.

Virgin expects to invest up to £60 million ($108 million) to purchase five such spaceships and develop the on-ground infrastructure necessary for the project. The company's founders say they will comply with any government regulations that may apply.

Virgin is licensing the technology to build the ships from Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a company owned by Mr. Allen. The licensing deal could be worth up to £14 million ($25 million) over the next 15 years, depending on how many ships it orders, Virgin said.

All the money that Virgin earns selling tickets will be reinvested in the program, Sir Richard said. He said if the venture was successful, Virgin planned to bring the prices down to allow "tens of thousands" of people to travel in space.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Branson Dreams of Dominating Space Tourism Industry