Dubai: Fancy a trip up to space with your sales team?
First Virgin Galactic, the world's first commercial space tourism operation, announced it would offer adventurous - and rich - travellers the chance to shoot up to space for the trip of a lifetime.
Now, the company says it is ready to book chartered flights, including for corporate clients. To charter a Virgin Galactic spaceship, it will cost $1.2 million.
The first flights won't take off until 2009, but Sharaf Travel, Virgin's ticketing office in the Middle East, is promoting charter bookings for SpaceShipTwo which seats six passenger astronauts.
Opportunity
"Charter space flights offer a unique opportunity for companies to associate themselves with space tourism," said Salah Sharaf, chairman, Sharaf Travel.
Space flights are now available for sale at $200,000 per person per flight with different deposit structures available. The first 100 seats, called "Founders," have been booked.
Pioneers require deposits from $100,000 to $175,000 (with remainder paid on confirmation of flight date).
Voyagers meanwhile require a deposit of $20,000 to secure a seat with the remainder paid on confirmation of flight date. Flight priority is based on a first book, first fly basis.
The Virgin Galactic experience involves boarding SpaceShipTwo which is attached to the mother-ship WhiteKnightTwo.
Following a run-way take-off the space craft will climb to an altitude of 50,000 feet where the spaceship will be released and the rocket ignited.
The aircraft climbs to an altitude of 110 kilometres above the earth's surface. float around the large cabin in zero gravity (for four minutes) before returning to earth.
