Virgin Says Space Flight Plan Complete, Airline Expansion Planned
spacedaily.com
Bombay (AFP) Mar 31, 2005
Flamboyant British tycoon Richard Branson said Thursday his Virgin group's ambitious plans for commercial space flights are complete and the first fee-paying astronaut will fly with him into orbit in the next 30 months.
"The plan for the new spaceship is complete and work on the project will commence in the next three months, with the first commerical space flight to take off in two-and-half years," Branson told reporters in Bombay, India's financial hub.
Branson landed in Bombay Thursday on board the inaugural flight of his Virgin Atlantic Airways from London. The airline will operate three flights weekly between the two cities.
Wearing a traditional Indian silk costume, Branson said the aim was to make forays into space both safe and cheap.
"We want to make space travel as affordable as possible to people from across the world," he told a press conference.
Virgin Atlantic last year signed a technology licensing deal with US company Mojave Aerospace Ventures. Mojave was behind SpaceShipOne, which in June 2004 became the first private manned craft to travel into space.
"I, with my parents and my son and my daughter will travel in the first space flight," said the 54-year-old tycoon, who made his fortune with the Virgin pop record label before branching out into air travel, railways, telecommunications and a host of other enterprises. |
