Turismo no espaço em 2012

For a mere $200,000 (£120,000), wealthy funseekers will be able to enjoy a few minutes' weightlessness, staring out at the curve of the Earth from under a black sky.

Currently in the final stages of construction, SpaceShipTwo is expected to make its first test flights in the early months of 2010.

A small, rocket-propelled, shuttle-like vehicle around the size of a light aircraft, SpaceShipTwo will be carried to 50,000 feet above sea level – 20,000 feet higher than most airliners – by its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo.

Once there, SpaceShipTwo's own rocket engine will fire, launching the little ship to the boundary between the atmosphere and the vacuum of space at three times the speed of sound. After the engines are cut off, they will enter free-fall, experiencing total weightlessness for several minutes.

WhiteKnightTwo has been undergoing flight tests since December last year.

So far 300 people have paid in full for their ticket, while a further 82,000 have registered their interest on Virgin Galactic's website. The engineers behind the craft refer to the rich, middle-aged people who are their target market as “Brads and Angelinas”, according to Wired.com.

The new craft is the descendant of SpaceShipOne, the first ever privately funded manned space vehicle. Scaled Components, the company which built both ships, won the $10 million (£6 million) X Prize for being the first non-governmental organisation to reach space.