Richard Branson unveils Virgin spaceship
by Kate Pritchard - Thursday, 24th January 2008 - (1) comment - Business comment
2008 is going to be the year of intergalactic travel. So said Virgin tycoon Richard Branson in New York yesterday as he unveiled his latest money-making machine: a spaceship.
That’s right. Branso plans to go where no entrepreneur has gone before: the space tourism market.
SpaceShipTwo will start test flights later this year. More than 200 intrepid explorers have already signed up, including the likes of physicist Stephen Hawking, former Dallas star Victoria Principal and designer Philippe Starck.
Each “flight” costs a cool hundred grand. Branso reckons he can take as many as 100,000 passengers into space in the first 12 years.
Has the Virgin mogul tapped into another lucrative niche? Or is he seeing stars? Let us know your views.
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Related tags: spaceship, richard branson, spaceshiptwo, space travel, space tourism, tourism market, spaceship two, stephen hawking, entrepreneur, virgin,
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January 26, 2008 7:57pm
hersh Says:
HAs anyone calculated potential carbon footprint for a single flight, which neither progresses mankind's scientific knowledge, nor, any mandatory need? Only pupose it serves is to help Branson bank some more millions and let others spend their extra!