Richard Branson: Rocket man

Virgin Galactic's ready for take-off. Sir Richard Branson explains to Andy van Smeerdijk how anyone willing to part with $200,000 can become a space cadet.

Next year Sam and Holly Branson will accompany their father, Sir Richard, on yet another of his remarkable journeys. But this time it won't be in a balloon, amphibious vehicle or aircraft, nor will it be a world record attempt.

They'll be two of the first 100 passengers to blast off on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, a venture that will change the nature of travel as we know it.

The eight-seater spaceship will take off from the company's spaceport in New Mexico. Initially, it will hitch a ride to 50,000ft above earth on Virgin Galactic's Mothership (an aircraft) then will blast off in mid-air.

Within 10 seconds, it will accelerate to a speed of 4000kph - three times the speed of sound, subjecting passengers to some serious G forces.

Within another 80 seconds, it will have rocketed 110km above the surface of earth, beyond the planet's atmosphere. Here the engine will cut, providing passengers with views of deep space and earth.

They'll be able to unclip themselves from their seats and experience the weightlessness of space for four minutes... no doubt, doing the odd somersault and a few Matrix moves too.

It's a radical way to get your kicks. But even so, Branson suspects that one day people will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

"Absolutely. I believe that we'll see a fairly similar pattern emerge as happened with commercial aviation," he told 4Men via email.

"I very much doubt, though, that we will ever lose the wonder of actually breaking free of the atmosphere and looking back onto our stunning planet suspended in the blackness of space.

"I also suspect that just as I (and many others) still get a little excited and emotional when watching one of our beautiful Virgin Atlantic aircraft take to the skies, space launches will always create a sense of the thrill of technological achievement, exploration and discovery."

The trip requires three days of training and certainly isn't cheap - at $200,000 a pop. And the time actually spent in space is relatively short, so Branson saw it as necessary to maximise the experience by allowing people to unstrap themselves and bob around in
zero gravity.

"You could probably run a business for a year or two which kept people strapped to their seats and with limited outside views due to the novelty factor but what our customers tell us, and I'm sure the same will be the case in years to come, is that they have committed and paid early because they believe the product we'll be able to offer will completely optimise the experience of being in space.

"Everyone will therefore have plenty of time and space to soak up the incredible views of the earth, around 1000 miles in any direction, and the ribbon of atmosphere protecting it. It's going to be wonderful and I can't wait."

After four minutes of zero gravity acrobatics, passengers will reassume their seats, which now fold into a lying position.

The spaceship then re-enters the earth's gravitational pull and glides down to earth in wide arcs over a period of about 45 minutes - no rockets, no emissions and no sound. Occupants will be able to watch the darkness of space fade into deep blue and eventually sky blue.

Like anything Branson's involved in, spaceflights are only the beginning. No surprises too that he's already thinking of a space hotel.

"I can absolutely see the day when an orbital spacecraft run by Virgin Galactic delivers customers to an orbital hotel probably run by Virgin Limited Editions," he says.

Likewise, the English entrepreneur has set his sights on moon visits and - possibly more financially lucrative - long-haul flights across the globe by spaceships. ("Off to London, Mr Obi Wan? Would you like an aisle seat?")

"I would love to stand on the moon before I die and fully expect to," says Branson, who's a Star Trek fan.

"Also as someone with a crazy travel schedule I am greatly looking forward to point-to-point sub-orbital travel allowing highly environmentally friendly and extremely rapid flights around the world, although that's still probably a few years away."

The spaceship used in the flight, which emits as much greenhouse gas as a trans-Atlantic flight, is based on SpaceShipOne - the spacecraft designed by Burt Ruten that completed the first privately funded human spaceflight in 2004, then two more trial flights in the same year.

Much like the euphoria of the first flight, Branson expects the experience to blow away both the pilots and the passengers on SpaceShipTwo.

"I've spoken to many astronauts over the years and read their accounts of how the experience of space affected and changed them.

"Brian Binney and Mike Melville, the test pilots of SpaceShipOne who, of course, had a pretty similar flight to the one our customers will experience, both said that nothing had prepared them for impact of seeing the earth from space.

"And, of course, they didn't even get the chance to leave their seats to experience the joys of weightlessness - something that all Virgin Galactic astronauts will get to experience on each and every flight."

When queried about inflight service, Branson responds, "The flight itself I think has been pretty accurately described as sensory overload - every moment will encompass something you've never heard, felt or seen before. I very much doubt that anybody's going to be sitting there wondering why they haven't been offered duty free or a Bloody Mary!"

On a more serious note, he feels there's a large role for the private sector in space travel.

"Deep space exploration is incredibly important to our understanding of our own origins and the nature of the universe; in my view that's where the government space agencies have done such a great job and should continue to devote their resources, leaving the private sector to concentrate on near earth activities and launches for people, science and payload."

So far a dozen people in the UAE have signed up for the flight, says Sharon Garrett, head of space marketing and PR for Virgin Galactic in the Middle East.

"We have had an overwhelming response to space flight here," she says. "We lay claim to the first corporate charter sale whereby a Dubai-based company has purchased a dedicated spaceflight just for them. Each charter is for six passengers at a cost of $1,080,000."

Starting off with just one flight a week, Virgin Galactic is planning to be launching two flights a day within five years' time.

"We're excited by the future of space," says Branson.

"If we can crack the past problems of manned space access, which I believe we can with SpaceShipTwo, then this will become an industry that the private sector will want to invest in and things could happen very quickly.

"We already have people looking at possible orbital vehicles and have been very impressed with the development work on inflatable space hotels being carried out by Bigelow Aerospace in the US."

Inflatable hotels... in space? You first, Sir Richard.

Out of this world
The damage: Anyone 18 and older can sign up for the space flight, subject to medical fitness tests. About 250 tickets have already been sold at a price of $200,000.

If you want a 'Voyager' ticket, you'll need to pay just $20,000 upfront and the rest at the time of the flight. For an earlier flight, there are four categories of 'Pioneer' tickets, which require deposits of $175,000, $150,000, $125,000 and $100,000 upfront with the remainder payable at the time of the flight.

Sample some Gs: The Taste of Space package gives aspiring astronauts an idea of what to expect in space. From Dhs45,326 per person, it includes return business class flights from Dubai to New York, accommodation, transfers and a half-day sub-orbital space experience at the Nastar Centre.

Here, similar to the three-day training for the actual spaceflight, people will experience flight simulation and G forces.

For more information: Visit www.virgingalactic.com, email galactic@sharaftravel.com or call Sharon Garrett on 050-5505486.