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London (pte025/28.07.2005/10:59) - Sir Richard Branson of Virgin fame has ordered the building of five spaceships for Virgin Galactic, his public space flight venture.
Branson intends to make it possible for ordinary citizens to experience travel into space. Already about 28,000 people from 118 countries have applied to Virgin Galactic for the flights.
Sir Richard announced the deal yesterday, Wednesday.
The Joint Venture, with aviation expert Burt Rutan, will see Rutan build the craft, codenamed SpaceShipTwo (SS2). SpaceShipOne (SS1), predecessor to SS2, was privately funded and flew to space twice last October and was designed by Rutan. The expert won £5.6 million (about 8m euros) and the 'X-prize', which was offered to anyone who could build the spaceship.
Two-hour flights with Virgin Galactic http://www.virgingalactic.com will cost £115,000. Space tourists will be transported 62 miles above the Earth, where they will be weightless for about five minutes, and they will also experience re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
Branson said: "It is a very exciting prospect for the future which we hope will be in place in about two-and-a-half years from now.
"I have always dreamed about space flight, but I never thought we would end up building them as well."
Rutan added: "Richard and I share a vision that commercially-viable and safe space tourism will provide the foundation for the human colonisation of space."
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