Abu Dhabi-backed Virgin Galactic, the space tourism arm of Virgin Group, will stage its first flight this Christmas Day, Richard Branson said.
Celebrities Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Ashton Kutcher are rumoured to be among those who will participate in the first flight with Richard Branson on December 25.
The company this week also announced it had hired two veteran pilots to operate the space ship, including a former NASA astronaut.
Co-owned by the UAE’s Aabar Investments, which owns about 37 percent, Virgin Galactic expects to “revolutionise the way we get to space”.
As at July last year, more than 500 people had paid deposits towards the $200,000 trip, which will last about two hours and reach 109 kilometres into space.
Virgin expects to fly 600 people in the first two years of service.
The company also plans to build a space port in Abu Dhabi, which could see travel to the US reduced to one hour.
It is expanding to include a satellite-launching service that would use a low-cost rocket system to propel payloads into orbit.
The firm recently successfully tested its SpaceShipTwo.
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