Star Trek star William Shatner and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Dave Navarro are among thousands who want to fly on Virgin’s proposed commercial space flights, company chief Richard Branson said on Friday.
Branson said more than 7 000 people have registered their willingness to pay the £115 000 (about R1,3-million) fare for the service, which promises to send passengers 110km above the Earth.
Speaking from California’s Mojave desert, Branson told Britain’s Press Association news agency there has been “tremendous take-up” of the idea since he announced it last month.
“We are extremely pleased because it just means in a sense that the gamble we took seems to have paid off,” he said.
Branson (54) said he has committed £60-million (R679-million) toward spaceships and ground infrastructure for the new service, Virgin Galactic.
He also plans to spend up to £14-million (R158-million) to license the technology of SpaceShipOne, the rocket-plane that made two successful suborbital space flights earlier this month to capture the $10-million Ansari X Prize.
Virgin hopes to offer flights — lasting about three-and-a-half hours, including six minutes of weightlessness — by 2008.
Branson said he will go on the first flight, along with family members, including his father, now 86.
“My dad has 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,” Branson said.
But he said his wife, Joan, “will have her feet firmly on the ground, I suspect, trying to encourage the kids to stay on the ground”.
Branson is one of Britain’s best known and most colourful entrepreneurs. His Virgin Group began as a record label, and now sells everything from soft drinks to bridal gowns. It even runs a train service and cellphone network. — Sapa-AP
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