Some people have too damn much money
Spaceflights Bound for Virgin Territory
Entrepreneur Richard Branson plans to offer suborbital trips for $190,000, with drinks.
By Peter Pae
Times Staff Writer
September 28, 2004
Richard Branson, the daredevil British billionaire and owner of Virgin Atlantic Airways, said Monday that he was launching a commercial rocket service that would take well-heeled passengers for a suborbital ride into space.
The two-hour trip, including drinks and four minutes of weightlessness in space, is set to cost about $190,000. [P6:
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Branson, meanwhile, will spend $100 million to buy five passenger rocket ships from Mojave-based aviation designer Burt Rutan for his Virgin Galactic space tourism business. He expects to launch the first flight in 2007.
"We hope to create thousands of astronauts over the next few years," Branson said, noting that he probably would be on the inaugural flight.
The spacecraft will hold five passengers, plus a pilot, and is to be modeled after Rutan's SpaceShipOne. In June, the squid-shaped rocket, piloted by Mike Melvill, became the first privately funded vehicle to carry a person into space as it soared to 328,941 feet, about 62 miles above Earth.
