THE FIRST COMMERCIAL AIRLINE IN SPACE

Rutan and Branson make a giant leap for space tourism
The intergalactic entrepreneurs unveil the VSS Enterprise, the world's first commercial passenger spacecraft. Tests are expected to start early next year, and flights could begin in 2011.



Richard Branson celebrates at Mojave Air and Space Port as the VSS Enterprise makes its debut. About 300 people have paid $200,000 each to be among the first passengers to travel in space.

By John Johnson Jr. reporting from mojave
December 7, 2009 | 10:45 p.m.

On a wind-tossed desert night, the dream of space pioneers Richard Branson and Burt Rutan to bring space flight to everyone -- at least everyone who can afford it -- drew closer to reality when the pair unveiled the world's first commercial passenger spacecraft.

To the strings of an ethereal soundtrack, as dreamlike purple lights played across the runway, the VSS Enterprise rolled into view at the Mojave Air and Space Port, about 95 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Despite the bracing wind-chill factor, hundreds of people who had flown in from around the world to view the craft burst into cheers and applause.


"Isn't that the sexiest spaceship ever?" shouted shaggy-haired British billionaire Branson.

Mock-ups of the design had been released earlier, but this was the first public glimpse of the much-anticipated craft.

The crowd that gathered for the event, which recalled the trippy music and dancing lights in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," could hardly have agreed more.

But then about 300 of them had already paid $200,000 each to be among Branson and Rutan's first paying passengers on Virgin Galactic.

Rutan gave no specific date for the first passenger flights, but officials said Virgin Galactic hopes to begin testing early next year, with the first flights in 2011.

Among the dignitaries in attendance were Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who bantered with each other as though they were on the rubber-chicken circuit.


The craft was built in Schwarzenegger's state, but it will conduct its operations from Richardson's state, from a base outside Las Cruces called Spaceport America.

Noting that passengers will have four minutes of weightlessness, Schwarzenegger joked: "No one is more happy than Gov. Richardson about that."

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