LONDON (AP) _ 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 (328,491 feet, or about 62 miles)
above Earth, just a little more than 120 meters (400 feet) 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.
Virgin said its agreement to license technology from Allen's company, Mohave
Aerospace Ventures, could be worth up to 14 million pounds (US$25 million, €21
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.
"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 within five years. Fares will start at 115,000 pounds (US$208,000,
€169,000) 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."
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