Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan owns the Manchester City Football Club, and boy he must be swimming in loads of money. He has met with the flamboyant Richard Branson and has agreed to invest USD280 million in a project to the space called Virgin Galactic. Virgin Galactic is a kind of service offered by Richard Branson to kick start the space tourism.

The Sheikh would invest in the insurance of the deal and he shall make use of his Aabar Investments. With this in mind, Aabar would be granted the rights to host Virgin Galactic tourism. Moreover, Abu Dhabi would turn from being a desert tow into a space hub with rockets and space technology creeping into the dusty sand dunes.

As many as 300 people have already registered for the space travel program and even Stephen Hawkings has taken notice of the Virgin Galactic. If you wanna go and fly into the space with these guys, you would need to spend about USD40 Million. The sheikh certainly looks happy about something, doesn’t he?

Via: Luxury Insider

So much for the talk about the economic downturn, enthusiasts of space tourism seem to be rather unaffected by the ruling atmosphere across the globe. In fact, they are wiling to go a step further. Yes, get married in zero gravity. If the buzz is to be believed then a NY coupe, Noah Fulmor and Erin Finnegan will exchange their vows floating mid-air in the presence of their near and dear ones.

The ceremony will be officiated by Richard Garriott, who is the sixth private explorer to go to space. Others promoting space tourism are Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic with a grand plan to conduct marriages 70 miles above the earth while a Japanese company Rocketplane Global Inc offers the same at 60 miles for $2.3 million. However, Fulmor and Finnegan might not have to shell out so much money. The official word at zerogravitywedding tells that plane rental shall cost between $32,400 and $64,800. But the cost can be brought down to $5,400 per person in case they are willing to share space with another couple getting married at the same time.

Well, the lovebirds in reference are doing their best to make their W-Day a memorable one. The bride is to wear a bridal gown in white designed by Japanese designer Eri Matsui while the groom shall sport a tux with tapered tails. The wedding is fixed for June 20 aboard a modified Boeing 727-200 that shall depart from the Kennedy Space Center. Lasting 90 minutes, the flight includes 15 drops from 36,000 feet to 24,000 feet creating 30 seconds of zero gravity.

Via telegraph

Virgin Atlantic has created a big name and a huge loyalty for itself over the years gone by. And now it is in the maintenance mode. With the interest of the world drawn towards space, we hear the famous airline company has come up with world’s first space line which they proudly and suggestively call Virgin Galactic (VG).

The cool concept is expected to become a rage with passengers as they will get an opportunity to become the first-ever non-professional astronauts. VG will include privately built spaceships modelled on the famous SpaceShipOne.

You can very well expect the signature Virgin experience topped with a dose of luxury, spectacular designs and advanced technology worked on by Burt Rutan. It will be an affair to remember for a lifetime!

Safety is of utmost importance to the makers. The spacecrafts are being made at Rutan’s base in Mojave, California. Virgin Chief Richard Branson believes that soon a new chapter will unfold for mankind as folks take vacations to space.

For the first time in the history of the universe, VG promises affordable sub-orbital space tourism with plans to start offering flights by mid-2009..

Via virgingalactic

Can you recall the Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Mothership? News is today Virgin Founder, Sir Richard Branson and SpaceShipOne designer, Burt Rutan, hauled back the barn doors on the novel WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrier airliner. Touted as the world’s largest all carbon fused jumbo jet, the vehicle can ride at an utmost elevation of 50,000 ft and its U.S. coast-to-coast assortment will enable the spacecraft to be send out on long interval voyage. Driven by four Pratt and Whitney PW308A engines, the WhiteKnight2 is an airplane that will commence SpaceShipTwo into suborbital space.

The flight for WK2 will commence once it reaches an apposite juncture in a broad test program that has by now begun with ground tests. The flight test program will be all-inclusive even prior to SpaceShipTwo is approved as a consignment for the first time in 2009. It is being told that Richard Branson and his family will be the first one to bore the flight that will last 2.5-hours with five minutes of weightlessness before the craft reaches back to Earth.

Via Wired / CrunchGear