LIFT OFF
RICHARD Branson’s space travel firm Virgin Galactic is set to start commercial flights this month.
Space tourists can, for a whopping £365,000, book a seat on the 90-minute jaunt — with a short spell at more than 52 miles above Earth.
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For three minutes the four passengers and two pilots, whose chairs are custom-made for each bottom, will feel weightlessness.
Up to six people, including two pilots, can fly at one time.
The debut flight, which follows 19 years plagued by accidents and technical blunders, will lift off from Spaceport America in New Mexico, US, between June 27 and June 30.
It will transport three members of the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy to the edge of space to carry out experiments in microgravity.
The next paid-for Virgin Galactic flight is scheduled for August, with monthly launches after that, rising to daily, it said.
Billionaire Branson, 72, last night tweeted: “A huge well done to the team — so excited for our astronauts to inspire more people to look to the stars.”
By 2026, Virgin Galactic aims to be taking paying customers to suborbital space every day.