Strapped in, flat on their backs, passengers will accelerate to 4000km/h in just 25 seconds. For no more than five minutes they will float about, 130km above planet Earth. On-board lavatory and in-flight drinks? Not a chance. And the price for this brief excursion? Ј110,000 ($29,860).
Richard Branson, the master of combining publicity coups with redrawing aviation boundaries, yesterday unveiled his latest project to redefine air travel - the first commercial space flights.
By 2007, the British billionaire plans to offer five wealthy &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/cis/2002/04/10/27468.html' target=_blank>space tourists at a time the chance to take three-hour trips on a fleet of rocket-powered craft that will take them into space but stop short of going into orbit.
Never one to understate his &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/politics/2002/03/04/26763.html' target=_blank>ambitions, Branson said he hoped to add a space hotel to his portfolio within his lifetime and maybe even fly to the moon, wrote New Zealnad Herald.
Branson announced the venture after signing a $25 million deal to use technology perfected by the California-based team that made the first privately funded &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/society/2001/05/08/4885.html' target=_blank>flight into space this summer with its craft, SpaceShipOne. In a fit of Michael Jacksonism, at the announcement, Branson also spoke of fulfilling the dreams of children, reports TechTV.
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