Virgin Galactic unveils SpaceShipTwo model

By Bill Rigby

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Entrepreneur Richard Branson on Wednesday unveiled a model of the spaceship he hopes will be the first to take paying passengers into space on a regular basis as soon as next year.

Branson, whose Virgin Galactic is charging $200,000 for a short trip into space, said his SpaceShipTwo will start test flights later this year.

"We really do want to have a situation where hundreds of thousands of people who want to experience space travel are able to do so," said Branson at a media event at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan.

"Even though the dollar isn't worth much anymore, $200,000 is still too expensive for the majority of people," he said. "Within five years of launching, I would hope the price would come down fairly dramatically."

Virgin Galactic, part of Branson's airline, vacation and retail company Virgin Group, now has more than 200 people signed up for the ultimate sightseeing trip, stumping up more than $30 million in deposits.

Passengers getting ready for the suborbital trip include physicist Stephen Hawking, former soap star Victoria Principal and designer Philippe Starck.

Suborbital space flight is the easiest and briefest form of space travel, where the spacecraft technically reaches space -- about 62 miles above sea level -- but then falls back to Earth without completing a revolution of the Earth.

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