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THURSDAY, JAN 24, (News Locale) - British born Virgin tycoon, Sir Richard Branson unveiled designs for two new spacecrafts, SpaceShipTwo and the mothership White Knight Two, announcing that testing for the two spacecraft will take place some time in the summer.
As of now, Branson's company, Virgin Galactic, is charging over $200,000 for a single trip into space. However the British billionare predicted that the implementation of this service will encourage others to consider launching similar services, but admitted that space tourism was a few years away from becoming a booming business.
He added that the company aims in reducing the cost and price of touring the space within the next five years. "Even though the dollar isn't worth much anymore, $200,000 is still too expensive for the majority of people. Within five years of launching, I would hope the price would come down fairly dramatically", Branson said.
A spokeswoman for Virgin Galactic revealed that over 200 people have already signed up for a trip, with the company collecting more than $30 million in deposits. Some of the more famous personalities include Stephen Hawking, Princess Beatrice and Branson's father, Ted Branson who was the first person to book a flight.
Mr Branson had revealed in October last year that commercial operations would begin 12 months after the testing phase was finished.
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