Reuters
10:00AM BST 30 May 2014
Richard Branson's dream of commercial space flights took a step nearer reality after Virgin Galactic signed a deal with US aviation authorities to let it blast paying customers into space, the company said Thursday.
The agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sets out how routine space missions from the Spaceport America base in the US state of New Mexico will be coordinated with the normal air traffic control system.
Commercial flights are to begin by the end of this year and more than 600 people have already signed up at $250,000 each to take a trip on SpaceShipTwo.
"Our team is working hard to begin routine and affordable space launches from Spaceport America and this agreement brings us another step closer to that goal," said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.
"We are grateful to the FAA and New Mexico for their partnership to achieve this milestone."
Related Articles
-
Space hotels on Virgin's to-do list
12 May 2014 -
British spaceport launch within five years
30 Apr 2014 -
Branson: I would have turned to crowdfunding
24 May 2014
The Virgin announcement came hours before Branson's main rival in the commercial space race was to unveil its latest spacecraft.
Elon Musk, CEO and chief designer of SpaceX, was to present his company's "next generation" Dragon V2 spacecraft at an event in California on Thursday evening.
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2014