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The Year of The Spaceship

Posted On: 24 January 2008 By: Jay Oatway Filed Under: Escape From Earth | One Word: "Plastics"

Virgin Galactic has unveiled their new space tourism vehicle: SpaceShipTwo. But this is more than an extravagant joy ride for wealthy space monkeys. According the Sir Richard Branson, it’s the ticket to humanity’s survival. [via PSFK]

“Our population is now heading to 9 billion people by the middle of this century — that’s three times more than when I was born,” explains Branson. “With the end of the oil era approaching, and climate change progressing faster than most models have been predicting, the utilisation of space is essential not only for communications but also for the logistics of survival.”

With SpaceShipTwo now nearly 60% complete — incorporating both the lessons learned from the SpaceShipOne program and the market research conducted by Virgin Galactic — the future of space tourism looks set to become a reality this year.

Virgin Galactic’s cadre of wannabe astronauts has swollen to more than 200 individuals (including Stephen Hawking) — with around 85,000 more registered to begin training. The deposit base now represents more than US$45m of future income to the fledgling spaceline.

They’ve even got the marketing material ready (although, I think Stephen Hawking, pictured above, makes for a much better spokes model).

The future is on the launch pad.

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