"I had lunch yesterday with a guy who got in touch with us in Singapore, and over lunch he signed his contract for not just a seat, but for a whole flight," Virgin Galactic commercial director Stephen Attenborough said. Speaking at an international media and marketing conference in Singapore, Attenborough said the customer handed over a cheque for $1 million and asked to remain anonymous because "apparently he hasn't told his wife yet." "So he is going to become, or he and his family will become, the first family from Asia to become astronauts together," Attenborough said. The US-based firm, part of British tycoon Richard Branson's Virgin conglomerate, has sold bookings since 2005 at $200,000 per seat even though it has not yet set a firm timetable for space flights to be launched from New Mexico.
Branson announced in late 2004 that the firm would launch the world's first space tourism flights in two to three years but after delays, the target has now been moved to 2013.
Attenborough told AFP in an interview that the Singaporean businessman chartered one exclusive flight for his family on the six-seat aircraft SpaceShipTwo.Read more