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Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America Opens to Public for Three-Hour Tours

Planning to hit happy hour tonight after work? We have something for toast to: the opening of Spaceport America, which represents yet another step closer to making space tourism a possibility. The Spaceport, located in the Mojave Desert in New Mexico—Albuquerque is 150 miles to the south—only just completed its runway in October and is already open for public tours.

This comes at the most opportune time; just as the sun is going down on the NASA space program and the space shuttles retired, Virgin Galactic's new wave spaceships enter the spotlight.

The AP has the news first, of course, that Virgin Galactic's facilities will host the first tour this Friday, a tour aimed at "giving guests an up close look at the spaceflight facilities before operations begin," which is later this year if all continues to go according to plan.

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Virgin Galactic / Space Tourism / Science Travel / Richard Branson / Space Travel / Travel News / Virgin / → All Tags

Space Tourism Six Years From Now to Be Kind of Affordable

Obviously "affordable" is a relative concept when it comes to space tourism. But we've been telling you for a while to keep your fingers crossed for competition between Virgin Galactic and potential rivals, if only because that way we can all dream about one day maybe flying in a sub-orbital. Prices aren't going to drop in the next few years for a bunch of reasons, from the fact that Virgin Galactic is the only company building a spaceport—which kind of puts a damper on competition—to the simple high costs of flying people into space.

Even at this early stage, though, serious people are beginning to envision how space tourism might become more available to more people. Virgin Galactic's former President Will Whitehorn just gave a far-reaching talk on the topic, and he predicted that ticket prices would drop from their current price of $200,000 to below $100,000.

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Space Tourism / Virgin Galactic / Science Travel / Richard Branson / Space Travel / → All Tags

Let's Talk Space Tourism. What's Virgin Galactic Been Up To Lately?

Six months after its first solo flight—coverage and background here and here—the Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise passed another milestone last Friday. The sub-orbital spaceship set a new 14:30 minute record after being dropped by its mothership, gliding over the Mohave Desert while test pilots confirmed that everything was working. This was the spaceship's fifth release, and things continue to progress nicely.

Eventually tests will start to incorporate the craft's space-age hybrid rocket motor, which thus far has only been tested on the ground. Those trials are going to begin over the next few months, with 2012 still the target for when commercial space tourism becomes a reality. By then the New Mexico Spaceport America, being built for both vertical and horizontal takeoffs, will also be ready.

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Flight Attendants / Richard Branson / Air Asia X / Tony Fernandes / F1 Racing / KUL / Air Asia / → All Tags

Delayed Again! Will Richard Branson Ever Dress in Flight Attendant Drag?

If you didn’t book your tickets last week for Richard Branson’s in-flight drag performance, you might have a little more time to do so, as it looks like the charity flight will be delayed once again.

Originally things were scheduled for April 1 and then May 1, but now things are being pushed back until July 4. The problem this time is that there are just too many people flying in and out of London to celebrate the Royal Wedding—that’s this Friday in case you didn’t hear. So the flight should leave from London on July 4 on its way to Kuala Lumpur.

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Richard Branson's Next Venture Will Be a Private Island...for Lemurs

There's no doubting that billionaire Richard Branson manages to be all over and in one place at the same time; that man has a vortex for a brain. One of the crazy/brilliant thoughts currently occupying his precious time is the idea to turn one of his private islands—in the British Virgin Islands—into a Lemur preserve.

You see, the little, fuzzy, exotic critters are endangered and Branson would like to put his property to the good use of breeding them back into healthy numbers. No more resorts for Branson; he's playing with submarines and spaceships now. Let the wild animals enjoy all things terrestrial.

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Flight Attendants / Richard Branson / Air Asia X / Tony Fernandes / F1 Racing / KUL / Air Asia / → All Tags

Tickets Now On Sale for Sir Richard Branson's In-Flight Drag Performance

There’s less than a month to go until Richard Branson finally walks down the aisle—of an airplane—dressed head to toe as a flight attendant. We’re just wondering if he’s going to sport those snazzy new heels that are on their way to his ladies at Virgin Atlantic.

What happened was he lost a bet with Air Asia's CEO Tony Fernandes regarding whose F1 racing team would have a better 2010 season. Team Lotus did a little better, so now Richard Branson gets to dress in drag and serve drinks on an Air Asia X flight from Kuala Lumpur to London. We like that the man is true to his word and recognizes that a bet is a bet, but more so that he has a great sense of humor.

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Airline News / Airlines / Australia Travel / Virgin Blue / V Australia / Richard Branson / → All Tags

Australia's Virgin Blue is 'Blue' No More

There are plenty of Virgin brands within Richard Branson’s aviation world, from Virgin Atlantic to Virgin America to Virgin Blue; sometimes it’s hard to keep all of them straight. Virgin Blue is the domestic carrier that does its thing in and around Australia, but it looks like it’s getting a name upgrade to fall in line with the rest of the brands around the world.

The airline will be rebranded as Virgin Australia, not to be confused with the already existing long-haul Virgin carrier V Australia. The name change also involves a pending lawsuit requiring another virgin company in Australia—one that made bookmarks—to pick a different name. Already domain names and other advertising goodies have already changed hands, but if you travel over to virginaustralia.com.au it’s still blank.

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Richard Branson Isn't the Only Billionaire Playing with Submarines

Yesterday, when billionaire Richard Branson announced the expansion of his Virgin Oceanic program to deep-sea exploration, he joined a very exclusive club. Okay, sure; he's already a part of the private island owners' club, the billionaires with space travel aspirations' club, and even the private club owners' club. Now, however, he can finally join the ranks of submarine owners of the world.

Technically Branson got his first sub last year, with the launch of the Necker Nymph, a 3-person tourist sub that accompanies his catamaran yacht-for-charter, the Necker Belle. Read more on it here, but do note its similarities to an airplane, rather an a conventional submarine. Branson's new sub will instead be a 1-seater with capability to reach 37,000 feet. That's crazy, and Branson is even crazier; he intends to pilot the second of five planned deep dives, and stands as the back-up pilot on the first, Marianas Trench dive.

Heaven forbid something happens to Richard, but we're now wondering what other billionaires count submarines among their toys?

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Richard Branson Moves April Fool's Day to May 1, When He'll Dress in Flight Attendant Drag

Do you enjoy seeing billionaires publicly embarrassed? Then have we got a date for you to mark on your calendar. May 1 is the reschedule date for the Air Asia X flight from Kuala Lumpur to London on which Sir Richard Branson will dress in drag and serve as a flight attendant. Of course this is due to him losing a bet with Air Asia's CEO Tony Fernandes over whose F1 racing team would have a better 2010 season. Fernandes' Lotus won the bet and now, instead of Tony as a Virgin Atlantic trolley dolly, Branson will don an Air Asia skirt suit (hopefully specially made).

You'd think this whole stunt would be best suited to April 1—April Fool's Day—but it's already been delayed. The original drag day was planned for February 21, but had to be postponed due to Branson breaking his leg (after another skier ran into him) on the slopes in Switzerland.

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Richard Branson / Air Asia X / Tony Fernandes / Flight Attendants / STN / KUL / → All Tags

We'll Be Waiting a Bit Longer to See Richard Branson in Flight Attendant Drag

We were all excited for February 21, as that was the day that Richard Branson was supposed to dress in full drag aboard an Air Asia X flight. You might remember that Branson lost a bet to Tony Fernandes, the head honcho over at the Malaysian low cost carrier, over whose F1 racing team would have the better record.

Apparently Branson has a little bit of a knee injury, so it looks like wearing high heels up in the air for a long haul flight might aggravate things a little too much. Over the holidays, another skier ran into him on the ski slopes in Switzerland, and he was forced into the hospital to undergo surgery on his knee.

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Richard Branson, Loser of a Bet, Will Dress in Flight Attendant Drag for Charity Flight

February 21. Mark your calendars now, as that's the date Virgin head honcho Richard Branson is due to dress in drag as a flight attendant for Malaysian low-cost carrier Air Asia X. It's all the result of losing a bet he made with buddy, former colleague and fellow multi-millionaire Tony Fernandes, the CEO of Air Asia X.

You see, Branson and Fernandes also both have Formula One racing teams, and the bet had it that whoever had the poorer performing team of the season would be dressing up to work the other's airline on a flight as a regular flight attendant. Since Fernandes' Lotus team ranked higher than Virgin's it's Branson who'll be shaving his legs and donning his Air Asia wings for a February 21st London Stansted - Kuala Lumpur flight on Air Asia X.

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Attention Texans: Win Party Passes and RT Tickets from Virgin America

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU.

Attention residents of the Lone Star state, but more specifically those of you in DALLAS: On December 1, the airline of mood lighting, cocktails and in-flight WiFi is landing at DFW for the first time. That's right, Virgin America is coming, with routes from LA and SF, and they're throwing a huge party at the Opera House, with Richard Branson, a performance by LMFAO and a "smoking" secret legendary musician.

But wait, there's more: We're giving away two VIP tickets to the party and two tickets for main cabin roundtrip flights on Virgin America! The flights can be used anytime through 2011 with a 21-day advance purchase and the exception of a few blackout dates. Therefore we need a winner from the Dallas area, who can make it to the party on December 1.

Texas might have been having a bad sports year, losing the World Series and watching the Cowboys bumble around the football field, but it is all coming back around with this give-away.

Here's how to win...

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