There is no in-flight service, no toilet, and nowhere to put your luggage, but punters have already pledged ?00 million (US$1.46 billion) to bag a seat on Sir Richard Branson's latest commercial venture -- a brief trip to the edge of space.
The 54-year-old entrepreneur announced plans to offer the first commercial trips into space last month. For a mere ?15,000, those bold enough -- and rich enough -- will get a seat next to a handful of other passengers aboard the Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise, a spaceship Branson hopes to have built and ready for launch by 2008.
Branson has poured ?4 million into the venture and more than 7,000 hopefuls have registered their willingness to pay the fare, amounting to ?05 million, well before the craft is even built.
"We are extremely pleased, because it just means in a sense that the gamble we took seems to have paid off," Branson said.
The ship will begin its three-and-a-half hour round trip into space strapped beneath a turbojet-powered plane. When the plane reaches 15,000m, the spaceship will release itself and fire up rocket engines to propel it straight up at three times the speed of sound.
Within 25 seconds, the craft will have accelerated to more than 3,200kph, the thrust pressing passengers back into their flat "beds."
At an altitude of 112m, beyond the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere, the fledgling astronauts will be able to unclip their seatbelts and enjoy a six-minute float around the cabin. The view through the portholes will show the curvature of the Earth.
Several celebrities are among the 7,000 who have signed up for tickets. The actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk in Star Trek, and the former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro have put their names forward and one Hollywood director has booked an entire ship and hopes to be among the first to fly.
The Virgin craft is based on the US-designed SpaceShipOne, which reached a height of 100km in a test flight over the California desert in June. Flights will initially only take off from the Mojave desert in California, but Virgin hopes eventually to open other launch sites in the UK, Florida, Australia and Singapore.
To date, tickets into space have been only for the obscenely rich. Three years ago, the US millionaire Denis Tito paid US$20 million for a trip to the International Space Station aboard a Russian rocket. A year later, South African Mark Shuttleworth followed.
Despite the flood of interest, Branson insists the first flight will be reserved for him and his family.
"My dad put his hand up and will be 90 at the time, my kids definitely want to come and if there is room for my mum she will come as well," he said.
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