10-22-04

Thousands of people are signing up to take a ride on Virgin Galactic's first commercial space flights. This week, Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk, William Shatner, added his to name to the list. 

According to Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, more than 7,000 people have already registered to take the $210,000 flight that will send passengers 70 miles above the earth.

The first flights are expected to take off by 2008. Lasting about 3 1/2 hours, the historic space flights will offer about 6 minutes off weightlessness, and allow passengers to look down on Earth from space.

White Knight, SpaceShipOne's carrier plane, and SpaceShipOne minutes before the historic flight in the Mojave Desert.
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Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, is known as one of Britain's most innovative entrepreneurs, and the corporate maverick has committed $110 million towards developing spaceships and spaceports. Additionally, Branson had to put down $26 million to license SpaceShipOne's X-Prize claiming technology.

In addition to Shatner and the thousands of other willing passengers, Branson himself will also take part in the spaceflights. Along with his father, Branson plans on taking the very first commercial space flight.

For more information, check out www.virgingalactic.com.

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