Space travel goes on sale

A travel agency in the Australian city of Perth, the nation's most remote state capital, has made history by becoming one of the first to sell flights into space.

The tickets which are being sold to adventurous travellers for £103,587, give wannabe space tourists the opportunity to ride into the upper atmosphere in one of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space flights at the end of 2008 or at the beginning of 2009.

Manager of Bicton travel agency in Perth, Philip Smethurst, who is selling the flights, said: "I am sure there is somebody out there, in Western Australia, who would be willing to do it.

"I know I would, if I had the money."

There are only nine agents in the world who have been appointed to sell tickets for the Virgin Galactic space flights and all of them are in Australia.

The cost of the ticket will give passengers three days of space training, a two to three hour trip into space and the opportunity to float weightlessly above the planet.

A Virgin space port is currently under construction in New Mexico, USA, due to be completed in 2011, but until then the fleet's five aircraft will take off from the Mojave Desert in the US.

So far 150 seats have been sold for the space flights, which will take six passengers at a time into the atmosphere.

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