Posted on 07/18/2006 6:32:31 PM PDT by KevinDavis
LONDON (AP) -- Designer Philippe Starck, former soap star Victoria Principal and ``Superman Returns'' director Bryan Singer have booked their flights for tourist trips in outer space, an official from the company selling the galactic voyage said Monday.
Virgin Galactic, a Virgin Group company, has sold some 200 tickets to passengers for suborbital flights, starting in 2008, said Will Whitehorn, the company's president.
It has collected 8.5 million pounds (US$15.6 million, euro12.4 million) in deposits for the flights that cost 109,000 pounds (US$200,000, euro158,000).
"Right now we're headed right on schedule," Whitehorn said. "Things are looking good from our perspective."
The venture by Virgin Group, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, is building five spaceships and two airplanes by 2010.
Travelers will take seats in a spaceship that will be attached to a separate airplane. Following takeoff, the spaceship detaches itself from the plane at about 15,000 meters (49,000 feet) from the ground.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Can you spare $200 thou?
That's a great idea. Ask Jim if he'd be willing to be caretaker of the account. Use paypal to make collection voluntary and easy.
The hard part will be selecting the lucky soul from the pool of American heroes. But the publicity will pay off big time during the 2008 election cycle, if VG flights start when planned in '08.
Me that is :)
200 tickets, $200,000 per ticket, $40 million. That'll be less than development costs, and finding another 200 who can go and will want to go is going to be a problem by 2008.
Better idea: a FR lottery for a ticket! The winner becomes the first Freeper in space!
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