"Alien" slayer Sigourney Weaver and heirhead Paris Hilton are among an initial group of space tourists who have paid $200,000 each for a ride to space. They are among a number of celebrities who have bought tickets on Virgin Galactic, the commercial spaceflight program created by British billionaire adventurer Sir Richard Branson. The first lift off is scheduled for 2008.
Other celebs including Madonna, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Hanks, Prince Harry and Dave Navarro have also put up money for a short few minutes of weightlessness in the outer stratosphere. Oh what money can buy ...
Bad news for Trekkies though, William Shatner has reniged on plans to bolding go where no celebrity has gone before and will not be among them.
Virgin Atlantic founder Branson showed off a model of a spaceliner for eight people (six passengers and two pilots). He intends to be among the first passengers. The company’s Web site says that more than 200 people have already signed up for a trip and 65,000+ have registered as potential passengers.
Virgin Galactic is expected to begin test flights by early 2008 in Mojave, Calif. The state of New Mexico has announced a joint venture with Branson to build Southwest Regional Spaceport, a $225 million facility near Upham, N.M. Experts believe suborbital space tourism could generate billions in ticket sales in the next decade.
And do so without damaging the environment. “If you’re going to build a spaceship, you’ve got to build a green spaceship,” Branson said, adding that the carbon dioxide output from a single spaceflight is on par with those of a business class seat aboard commercial aircraft.
The celebrity starship will be launched from a large aircraft at an altitude of about 60,000 feet (18,288 meters) and reach a maximum altitude of about 68 miles. (The official "boundary" for space flight is declared to be 62.1 miles or 100 kilometers.)
