Virgin Galactic on track to begin space flights
<<   July/2006   >>
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31  

Arts
Movies
Humor
Television
Music

Business
Internet
Finance
Jobs
Investing
Economy

Computers
Software
Hardware
World
Mobile

Games
Video Games
RPGs

Health
Fitness
Medicine
Alternative

Home
Consumers
Cooking

Recreation
Travel
Food
Outdoors

Reference
Psychology
Science
Education

Regional
US
Canada
Europe

Science
NSF
Space
Technology

Society
People
Religion

Sports
Baseball
Soccer
Basketball
 
18/Jul/2006 9:56AM

LONDON, England (AP) -- Former "Dallas" star Victoria Principal, "Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer and designer Philippe Starck have booked their flights for tourist trips into outer space, an executive for Virgin Galactic said Monday.

The company, part of British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group, has sold some 200 tickets to passengers for suborbital flights, starting in 2008, said Will Whitehorn, the company's president.

It has collected $15.6 million in deposits for the flights, a ticket for which costs $200,000.

"Right now we're headed right on schedule," Whitehorn said. "Things are looking good from our perspective."

Virgin Group is building five spaceships and two airplanes by 2010 for the venture.

Travelers will take seats in a spaceship that will be attached to a separate airplane. Following takeoff, the spaceship detaches itself from the plane at an altitude of about 49,000 feet.

It then enters suborbital space for about 15 minutes -- including five minutes of weightlessness.

After its journey into space -- at 87 miles above Earth, it returns to the ground.

The total flight-time is about 2 hours and 15 minutes, and the voyages will initially launch from the Mojave Desert in Southern California before relocating to a permanent base in New Mexico in 2010.

Virgin Galactic is one of many companies venturing into space travel. Space Adventures, a Vienna, Virginia-based company, has already sent three people on a Russian Soyez rocket to the International Space Station, some 220 miles above Earth. Each trip costs $20 million.




Recent news in category
Top 10 U.S. water parks
Quickie weddings in Vegas get tougher
Easing into Nevis

Global recent news
Stocks Surge on Geithner Pick
AUS - Mottram leads list of
Police arrest terror suspects in Toronto area

18/Jul/2006 9:20AM
(Budget Travel Onlineexternal link) -- "This bush is called the Climber's Friend," said the guide, pointing at a plant on Cape Town's Table Mountain. The prickly bush certainly didn't look amicable. "Grab onto it if you think you're going to fall," he continued. "It might save your life."

18/Jul/2006 8:16AM
(CNN) -- American businesspeople have it pretty easy, at least in terms of communicating when doing business abroad.

17/Jul/2006 10:35AM
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -- National Geographic is known for bringing the world alive through images and stories. Now it has expanded its representation of global cultures by creating a music exploration and purchasing site, enhanced with content from its National Geographic Channel and elsewhere.

17/Jul/2006 9:58AM
VALLEY FORGE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- George Washington. The Marquis de Lafayette. Hannah Till.

17/Jul/2006 9:38AM
HONOLULU, Hawaii (AP) -- Visitors to Hawaii may be in for a surprise -- the high cost of getting around doesn't end after that long and expensive airline flight from the mainland.

Copyright © 2006 Rootio Ltd. All rights reserved.