People line up to travel in Virgin spaceship

Dubai: People are already lining up to blast into space in a Virgin Galactic spaceship, even though the first vessel isn't set to launch until 2008.

One hundred and fifty seven would-be space explorers have paid $13.1 million in deposits for a service which, if successful, will deliver the weighlessness of space for all of five minutes.

At $200,000 a trip, Virgin's 'commercial astronauts,' as they will be able to call themselves, will have paid $40,000 for each weightless minute.

Using these numbers the $20 million Dennis Tito paid to Virgin's rival, Space Adventures, would have got him eight hours of space travel. In fact, Tito's adventure on the Russian space station, which yesterday Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin group, described as "bloody expensive", lasted two weeks, or 336 hours.

Still, not everyone has $20 million to spend. Or $200,000 for that matter. However, there are a great deal more high net worth individuals who have the latter to burn in rocket fuel.

In total, 47,000 people have signed up on the Virgin Galactic Web site as potential future astronauts.

Launching these statistics was none other than Richard Branson himself, who was in Dubai to promote Virgin Atlantic's new route to the emirate. But he was keen to also use the trip to promote Virgin Galactic, possibly because Space Adventures is building its space station in Ras Al Khaimah.

This region is flush with the kind of demographics that appeal to the Virgin Galactic marketer people with lots and lots of money.

Virgin Galactic does not want to lose them, or, more accurately their useful deposits.

However the competition looks serious.

Space Adventures is offering flights into space for $100,000 half the Virgin fee launching from Ras Al Khaimah, a whole year earlier.

However, neither Branson nor Will Whitehorn, Director of the Virgin Group and President of Virgin Galactic seemed concerned.

"Space Adventures has been claiming it will take people into space since 1999. It still doesn't have a space ship," Whitehorn said.

"It is taking money with no technology," said Branson, adding that this could damage the credibility of the fledgling commercial space travel industry.

In actual fact Space Adventures does have technology. Russian technology. Space Adventures has licensed the 'Bouran' design.

"Yeah ... Saw it. Rejected it," stated Whitehorn dismissively. "It has been sitting in the corner of Space City in Russsia as a plywood model for years it's just a paper design.

In fact both Branson and Whitehorn stressed, continually, trials for Galactic were going on now, and that the service would have a commercial level of safety by launch. More than 50 Virgin Galactic flights will have been trialled prior to the first commercial flight.

"I will, with my family, be on one of the first spaceships. That's how safe I think it will be," Branson said.

However, he was vague when asked who would take over the helm of the family-owned Virgin group should, just on the off chance, the space ship not cruise gently down to terra firma.