18-07-2012

Fare-paying passengers could start taking trips into space aboard Virgin Galactic by the end of 2013, with up to 300 people a year taking flights after that. The private space exploration company provided new details about its timeframe in an announcement this week. The first three passengers will be Virgin chief Richard Branson and his two grown children. Virgin Galactic already has about 530 people signed up to take the $200,000 suborbital flights, with each ride lasting about two hours. As previously rumored, Virgin Galactic will also offer satellite launching services for other companies. The LauncherOne program will put payloads of up to 500 pounds into orbit for $10 million, or about half the cost of a similar launch today. LauncherOne has already signed up an earth observation company and a company that plans to mine asteroids for rare metals and minerals.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/11/tech/branson-farnborough-virgin-galactic/index.html