The name was first registered and trade mark protection applied for in the mid 1990s. It is envisaged that Virgin Galactic will open for business by the beginning of 2005 and subject to the necessary safety and regulatory approvals begin operating flights from 2007. Virgin has formed Virgin Galactic (‘V.G.’) a new company, which will become the world’s first commercial space tourism operator. Separately to Virgin’s agreement with M.A.V., the company has also signed a Letter of Intent to agree contract terms with Burt Rutan and Scaled Composites, to utilise the technology in building new spaceship and derivatives thereof, for the purposes of carrying paying passengers on a journey to the stars – returning to earth as astronauts two hours later. On June 21st Mike Melvill piloted this unique craft to a height of 100 km (62 miles) and into the history books and record books as the world’s first private manned space flight. Allen, was designed by aviation legend Burt Rutan and built by his company, Scaled Composites. SpaceShipOne, which is solely funded by Paul G. could be worth up to £14 million ($21.5 million) over the next fifteen years depending on the number of spaceships built by Virgin. The technology is currently owned by a Paul Allen company called Mojave Aerospace Ventures (‘M.A.V.’) and was originally developed to fulfil Paul Allen’s vision of building the world’s first privately funded, reusable space vehicle (‘SpaceShipOne’), which will undertake its first Ansari X Prize flight later this week. Today, Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin Group has entered into an agreement to license the technology to develop the world’s first privately funded spaceships dedicated to carrying commercial passengers on space flights. Licensing the Technology To Develop The World’s First Commercial Space Tourism Operator

Where I Fly by K.M. Allen