500 People Now Signed Up to take the Ride of their Life

28 March 2012

On Monday 19 February, Sir Richard Branson announced on his blog that actor Ashton Kutcher had put down a deposit for a Virgin Galactic flight making him their 500th customer. This is yet another important milestone in a long line of incredible achievements that set Virgin Galactic as the clear leader in commercial space travel. In this edition we take a look at the timeline of this project and celebrate just how far Virgin Galactic have come on the challenging and exciting journey of human spaceflight.

22 March 2010

VSS Enterprise completes her first captive carry...

Virgin Galactic announced today that VSS Enterprise has completed her inaugural captive carry flight from Mojave Air and Spaceport.

This very first captive carry was a huge success and both the mothership and spaceship looked absolutely stunning against the blue back drop of the Mojave skies.

Commenting on the historic flight, Burt Rutan said: “This is a momentous day for the Scaled and Virgin Teams. The captive carry flight signifies the start of what we believe will be extremely exciting and successful spaceship flight test program.”

Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Galactic added: “Seeing the finished spaceship in December was a major day for us but watching VSS Enterprise fly for the first time really brings home what beautiful, ground-breaking vehicles Burt and his team have developed for us. It comes as no surprise that the flight went so well; the Scaled team is uniquely qualified to bring this important and incredible dream to reality. Today was another major step along that road and a testament to US engineering and innovation.”

The VSS Enterprise test flight programme will continue though 2010 and 2011, progressing from captive carry to independent glide and then powered flight, prior to the start of commercial operations.

House of Travel's local accredited space agents to witness world premier of Virgin Galactic SpaceshipTwo 

20 November 2009

House of Travel outlets in Botany Junction, Nelson and Palmerston North are the only travel retailers in New Zealand to be invited to attend the world premiere of SpaceShipTwo, the space vehicle developed by Scaled Composites to take private passengers to space.  This exclusive event, hosted by Virgin Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson and world renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan, will take place in Mojave, CA on December 7, 2009.

The three House of Travel retailers are the only travel agencies in New Zealand to have been hand-selected as a Virgin Galactic Accredited Space Agent (ASA), having completed intensive product training with Virgin Galactic in order to provide the highly specialized information required for such an exciting and unique offering. 

Virgin Galactic’s remarkable and pioneering project is now in its final stages.  The unveiling of SpaceShipTwo marks the next critical step in bringing space tourism to the general public, a privilege that has been limited to astronauts and those with the means to spend $20 million for a flight.  With a comparatively lower price of US$200,000, House of Travel is one of the few travel agency groups in the world with the ability to attend this groundbreaking event and accept deposits for this once-in-a-lifetime journey.

Based on the design of SpaceShipOne, the historic vehicle that completed three successful spaceflights in 2004, thus claiming the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, SpaceShipTwo is the next generation of spacecraft built for the specific purpose of taking passengers into suborbital space.  WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier aircraft that will launch SpaceShipTwo from 50,000 feet, was unveiled in July 2008 and is well into a successful test flight program.  Following SpaceShipTwo’s unveiling in December 2009, this revolutionary spacecraft will immediately embark on an extensive test flight regime. Already, approximately 300 people from around the world have paid nearly $40 million in deposits to guarantee an early seat.

For any further technical information or media enquires about House of Travel and Virgin Galactic or our Accredited Space Agents, please contact: