Ashton Kutcher: 500th Astronaunt for Space Trip
Ashton Kutcher is the 500th space tourist on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spaceship built and tested by Scaled Composites.
“I gave Ashton a quick call to congratulate and welcome him,” Branson wrote. “He is as thrilled as we are at the prospect of being among the first to cross the final frontier (and back!) with us and to experience the magic of space for himself.”
Branson emphasizes the importance of safety on his state-of-the-art space craft, “We are guided by safety and so will ensure that everything is just as safe as it can possibly be before we start commercial services – particularly as I will be on the on the first commercial flight with my kids!”
A hypothetical flight in the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo will last around two and a half hours including a take-off (while mated to the carrier craft), boost phase, ballistic phase (where passengers can float freely in space for about five minutes), reconfiguration for re-entry, the return flight, and finally the landing back at the spaceport in the desert of New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic spaceships are flying in the final stages of the test flight program. A galactic departure is scheduled for 2013 or 2014 with a test flight later this year. If you are interested in becoming passenger 501, you can book your $200,000 ticket at
http://www.virgingalactic.com/booking/
For more information about Virgin Galactic, check out the impressive video below.
