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Citizens Book Tickets to Moon

Would-be astronauts fund growth industry

Posted Jul 26, 2007 3:03 PM CDT

(Newser) – A citizen spaceflight company has two passengers willing to pay $100 million each for a flight around the moon. Tickets aboard Virgin’s future suborbital flights are flying out the door. The civilian aeronautics industry finds itself better funded every day, as would-be astronauts and backers alike are rushing to get on board, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

Angel investors with space obsessions are lining up to fund "reusable-rocket" startups, and NASA recently split $500 million between two. The competition for the $2-million X prize— awarded to the company that builds the best prototype of a lunar lander—will be held in New Mexico in October.

[Images (6)]

[Videos (1)]

Virgin Chairman, Richard Branson discusses the future of "Virgin Galactic" in Dubai. (Getty Images)

Commercial ventures like Virgin Galactic (embracing X-Prize winner Rutan's design for "Spaceship Two") could usher a new age of space tourism. (KRT Photos)

The 2004 X-Prize winner "Spaceship One", seen here in flight. (Rokits, Wikimedia Commons)

Richard Branson, left, Burt Rutan and Paul Allen, right, watch as SpaceShipOne glides back to earth during the Ansari X Prize competition in Mojave, Calif., Oct. 4, 2004. Rutan, a secretive aviation... (Associated Press)

The official logo for X-Prize competition, which literally propelled commercial spaceflight into the spotlight in 2004. Also available as a popular clothing patch. (X-Prize Foundation)

Rutan and the crew of his "Spaceship One" before winning the X-Prize in 2004. The vehicle and the philosophy behind its development have captured the imagination of an industry. (Wikimedia Commons)

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Citizens Book Tickets to Moon