VirginGalactic

Last time I wrote about Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan he was flying horses to Abu Dhabi. He's in the news again with a big purchase. The Telegraph reports that he has bought a 32 percent stake in Richard Branson's space tourism project, Virgin Galactic ,for $280 million. The deal, which was done through the sheikh's company Aabar, puts the value of Virgin Galactic at $900 million even though it hasn't begun to offer flights yet. The deal represents a significant vote for the viability and inevitable profitability of space travel. This deal means that Abu Dhabi will be hosting Virgin Galactic tourism and research flights. There is also a plan to build spaceport facilities in Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile Sir Richard Branson is showing off the WhiteKnightTwo (VMS Eve), at the Experimental Aircraft Association's 2009 AirVenture annual fly-in and convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The spacecraft that will carry the tourists, SpaceShipTwo, should begin testing later this year. No date for the start of commercial operations has been set yet but around 300 people have paid the $200,000 for an advance space ticket.

The 40th anniversary of the first moonwalk is swiftly approaching: July 20, 2009. And although it's been long in the making, Virgin Galactic moves ever closer to making a space journey a reality for private citizens willing to spend $200,000. (A bargain, really, considering that arranging private space travel today costs about $20 million.) On May 28, 2009, Virgin Galactic announced the successful completion of the first phase of tests of the rocket motor that will propel space tourists up, up and away.

There are still more tests to go, but at this point, the plan is to start sending passengers into space as soon as late 2010. (Delays are very likely, so no need to go into an oxygen-free environment just yet -- don't hold your breath.) There's no moonwalking in the cards, but there is traveling at 3,000 miles an hour to 70 miles above the earth's surface, experiencing weightlessness and a view of more than 1,000 miles in all directions.

If you want to get to this before the been-there-done-that's set in -- at current tally, there are 300 people from 42 countries waiting for their turn -- it's worth signing up early. You can accomplish this exclusively through luxury travel pros Virtuoso, who are the first "Accredited Space Agents."

In fact, Virtuoso founder Matthew D. Upchurch is a candidate to be among the first to make the trip. Whether he's on the very first flight will be determined by a lottery -- he's got a 1 in 14 chance. But hey, the odds of reaching the moon at all forty years ago had to be longer than that.

You'd figure that after winning grands prix and driving the fastest cars on the planet, an accomplished F1 driver would have had his fill of extreme Gs and rapid acceleration, but these are speed junkies, and they're always looking for a new adventure. That could be why two seasoned F1 pros are lining up, among the myriad celebrities and billionaires, to experience a low-orbit space flight with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Sponsoring the winning Brawn GP car at this past weekend's race in Bahrain, Virgin Galactic announced their two latest recruits: Rubens Barrichello and Niki Lauda. Barrichello, who is second in the standings for the F1 world championship this year, has already paid the $200,000 for his ticket on one of Virgin's space flights, which Branson delivered in person at the race. Three-time world champion Niki Lauda, however, is planning to take it even further by undertaking training, at age 60, to pilot the Virgin spacecraft and take other paying tourists up into space. Lauda already owns his own airline and sometimes pilots the flights himself, but even for the driver who's been to hell and back, this should be a new adventure altogether.

Those whose taste runs to the exotic might be tempted to check out the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. The hotel already offers dog sled and snowmobile safaris but it will now sell space flights. Virgin Galactic will be offering trips from nearby Kiruna which is the northernmost city in Sweden. The trips should begin in 2012 and tourists can choose a summer trip in the ceaseless light of the midnight sun or a trip during the dark winter highlighted by the luminous aurora borealis. Tickets will likely cost around $200,000 for the trip.

With the plans for Virgin Galactic proceeding full steam, tourists are lining up for commercial sub-orbital spaceflights. Elegant Resorts has announced that they are the official "space agent" in Russia, CIS and the UK. Some of the staff from Elegant Resorts went to the International Space University in Strasbourg this summer to learn about spaceflight technology, G-forces, weightlessness and all of the details of the three-day Virgin Galactic Experience. The first commercial flight is expected to take place in 2009 and already 70,000 people have registered their interest on the Virgin Galactic website. So far 200 people around the world have signed up to pay the $200,000 fee for a short suborbital space ride.