The notoriously famous Virgin company has a division that is devoted to commercial space travel, known as Virgin Galactic. They will apparently be ready to launch ordinary people into the cosmos by 2008.

150 tickets have already been sold at $200,000 a pop. Victoria Principal (of "Dallas" fame), director Bryan Singer, and an "unidentified member of the royal family" have already purchased their tickets for the 2008 launch. That's what you call planning your vacation in advance. The spaceship to be used is called SpaceShipOne (pictured). Virgin's already working on five other commercial shuttles, each of which will be SpaceShipTwo models (larger than their predecessor). The first launch will be from the Mojave Desert, though Virgin's planning on using New Mexico as their permanent launch site.

Don't expect to reserve a room at the lunar hotel, though. These trips just involve a measly 15 minutes in space, before you're brought back down to the world of gravity. Not much bang for your $200,000. I'd rather buy a pair of these robotic caretakers for my folks.

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Report Published by: Mark Raby