FREE FLOATING SPACE OUTFIT Virgin Galactic has said that it expects test flights of Spaceship Two to occur in 2011.

The passenger craft which is hoisted into the air by Whiteknight II was unveiled in December by Sir Richard Branson's commercial spaceflight venture. It's based on Burt Rutan's X-Prize winning Spaceship One and while its been over five years since SS1 took the X-Prize, Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, made the surprising move of admitting that he "doesn't know" when the first commercial spaceflight will take place, adding that those will occur when "we're ready".

Whether that statement will cut the mustard with the 330 or so well-heeled folks who stumped up around 30 million quid in deposits is another matter. Whitehorn says they are not racing anyone to get SS2 off the ground and that their first priority is safety. That's standard copy for anyone in the aircraft industry, but Whitehorn and Branson can afford to say that thanks to foreign government investment in the company.

Last July Abaar, investment arm of the state owned Abu Dhabi energy Petroleum Investment Company, stuck both hands down the back of its sofa and managed to come up with $280 million, enough to purchase a 32 per cent stake in Virgin Galactic. That should mean after Virgin gets its New Mexico spaceport up and running the next terminal offering passenger filghts into space will be located in the oil rich Emirate.

For $200,000, passengers, depending on your definition of space, will get to go the boundary of space. They will be able to observe the curvature of the Earth and presumably after stowing away inflight meals be subjected to a weightless environment. Branson has always been conscious of the high price tag saying that the first passengers will subsidise the future cost for mere mortals to get a little closer to the heavens.

The question then becomes, how many years will it take for fat cats to pave the way for affordable trips to the edge of space? µ