Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has announced his company has signed an agreement worth £14m to take private passengers into space.
The deal with the US firm which owns the technology could be worth millions over the next 15 years, depending on the number of space vehicles built.
Prices for each seat into space are expected to start at around £115,000.
Sir Richard revealed the new venture at a briefing held on Monday at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London.
The new service will be called Virgin Galactic. Up to 3,000 astronauts could be flying into space over a five-year period, according to Virgin.
Sir Richard said: "We hope to create thousands of astronauts over the next few years and bring alive their dream of seeing the majestic beauty of our planet from above, the stars in all their glory and the amazing sensation of weightlessness.
"The development will also allow every country in the world to have their own astronauts rather than the privileged few."
The deal is with Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the company set up by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to exploit the technology developed for the private space vehicle SpaceShipOne.
SpaceShipOne is one of more than 20 other craft vying for the $10m (£5.7m) Ansari X-Prize, which rewards the first team to send a non-government, three-person craft over 100km into space, and repeat the feat in the same craft inside two weeks.
SpaceShipOne became the first private vehicle to reach space in June. It will begin its bid for the X-prize on Wednesday.
The Virgin boss was flanked at Monday's announcement by Rutan, who has already collaborated with Sir Richard on Virgin GlobalFlyer, a jet plane designed to fly non-stop around the world without refuelling.
"Virgin has been in talks with Paul Allen and Burt throughout this year and in the early hours of Saturday morning signed a historical deal to license SpaceShipOne's technology to build the world's first private spaceship to go into commercial operating service," Sir Richard said.
"Virgin Galactic will be run as a business, but a business with the sole purpose of making space travel more and more affordable."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3693020.stm
The deal with the US firm which owns the technology could be worth millions over the next 15 years, depending on the number of space vehicles built.
Prices for each seat into space are expected to start at around £115,000.
Sir Richard revealed the new venture at a briefing held on Monday at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London.
The new service will be called Virgin Galactic. Up to 3,000 astronauts could be flying into space over a five-year period, according to Virgin.
Sir Richard said: "We hope to create thousands of astronauts over the next few years and bring alive their dream of seeing the majestic beauty of our planet from above, the stars in all their glory and the amazing sensation of weightlessness.
"The development will also allow every country in the world to have their own astronauts rather than the privileged few."
The deal is with Mojave Aerospace Ventures, the company set up by aviation pioneer Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to exploit the technology developed for the private space vehicle SpaceShipOne.
SpaceShipOne is one of more than 20 other craft vying for the $10m (£5.7m) Ansari X-Prize, which rewards the first team to send a non-government, three-person craft over 100km into space, and repeat the feat in the same craft inside two weeks.
SpaceShipOne became the first private vehicle to reach space in June. It will begin its bid for the X-prize on Wednesday.
The Virgin boss was flanked at Monday's announcement by Rutan, who has already collaborated with Sir Richard on Virgin GlobalFlyer, a jet plane designed to fly non-stop around the world without refuelling.
"Virgin has been in talks with Paul Allen and Burt throughout this year and in the early hours of Saturday morning signed a historical deal to license SpaceShipOne's technology to build the world's first private spaceship to go into commercial operating service," Sir Richard said.
"Virgin Galactic will be run as a business, but a business with the sole purpose of making space travel more and more affordable."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3693020.stm
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