UK: Second Biggest Buyer of Tickets for Space Tourism Holidays

A trip into space will be a dream for some and now they may be able to enjoy this life-changing experience.

Virgin Galactic recently unveiled the world's first manned commercial spaceship, the SpaceShipTwo, and it is designed to take private astronauts into space after test programming.

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, said that the initiative will revolutionise access to space.

During a question and answer session with travel expert Simon Calder at the Adventure Travel Live event, Mr Whitehorn said that going to space currently brings with it exactly the same safety profile as climbing to the top of Mount Everest.

He said Virgin Galactic is hoping to get the levels of safety up to where general private aviation is in today's world.

Britain is the second biggest buyer of tickets for a Virgin Galactic trip behind the US at the current time, with 325 tickets sold so far, amounting to $43 million (£27 million) of deposits.