In an interview with Reuters in Dubai, where his Virgin Atlantic airline began
flights from London this week, Branson said other companies offering space travel
had not matched the progress made by the Virgin Galactic venture.
"A number of companies around the world are offering space travel but they
haven't tested and built any space ships. They certainly haven't had test flights
into space," Branson said. "Virgin is the only company in the world that has
actually achieved that," he
added.
Virgin Galactic will offer space flights for $200,000, and says it has already
received more than 150 firm reservations and taken $13.1 million in deposits.
Some 45,000 people have expressed an interest in the trips.
The spacecraft to be used by Virgin is based on SpaceShipOne, which in 2004
won the $10 million Ansari X prize offered to the first private organization
to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. Virgin
is building five models of SpaceShipTwo, a larger version.
The craft is attached to a larger plane - White Knight Two - for take-off
from the ground, and then detaches at 50,000 feet from the carrier aircraft
before accelerating rapidly and entering sub-orbital space. Virgin says customers
will spend 15 minutes in space, including five minutes of weightlessness.
"You'll go up under the mother ship, attached to it; you'll be dropped away
and then you'll have the rush of your life as the craft goes from zero miles
an hour to 4,000 miles an hour, taking you into space where you will be able
to unfasten your seatbelt and enjoy weightlessness, see the curve of the earth
and see the atmosphere," Branson said.
The entrepreneur says he plans to be on the first commercial Virgin Atlantic
flight along with his children and parents - including his 91-year-old father.
Branson says safety is of paramount importance to the venture.
"We have to launch this on the basis that we're giving people a return ticket," he
said. "We have the best safety record in transportation of any group of companies
in the world."
The venture has several competitors, including Space Adventures, a U.S.-based
company that has already sent three space tourists on a Russian Soyuz rocket
to the International Space Station for $20 million each. The firm now plans
to use Russian technology to send tourists on suborbital flights.
But Branson said competitors had not tested their spacecraft and he was confident
Virgin was ahead. He said he expected Virgin Galactic to be a commercially
viable venture that eventually makes space travel accessible to millions of
people. The venture hopes to fly 50,000 people into space in its first 10 years
of operation, and Branson said that with time space travel would become cheaper.
"I don't think that anything like this could survive unless it was commercially
viable," he said. "I think this can be a commercially successful venture as
well as an awesome adventure."
