Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Cash Frequent Flyer Miles For A Space Trip

Frequent flyers on Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic airways will start being able to cash in their frequent flyer miles for a trip to outer space. According to the company, frequent flyer miles will be able to be traded in for seats on Virgin Galactic, Branson's new space tourism startup. Virgin Atlantic said that its Flying Club members will need to earn two million miles on its flights to earn a trip to space, including a three day training session before the flight. Seats on the new space line start at $200,000. Virgin Galactic is expecting to start flights in 2008. The company is developing a service based on Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, the first commercial spaceship to make it to outer space. Mojave-based Mojave Aerospace Ventures and aerospace designer Burt Rutan developed SpaceShipOne in a project funded by Microsoft's Paul Allen.

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