That’s right. The age of space tourism appears to be nigh. Three years ago, Sir Richard Branson, billionaire music industry mogul turned commercial airline pioneer, first announced his plan to send some of us “normal folk” 360,000 feet up to requite our childhood astronaut fantasies. On July 28, Branson and his team of engineers and investors sent hordes of reporters and photographers to the Mojave Desert to officially roll out of the Virgin Galactic spaceship launch vehicle, dubbed the White Knight Two (WK2).

In what was quite the media “to do,” the event marked the first glimpse the public had of the vehicle responsible for carrying the still hush-hush spacecraft to 50,000 feet. From there, the spaceship will detach itself from the WK2 and launch up to 360,000 feet, past the Kármán Line (considered the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space).

Affectionately named “Eve” after Branson’s mother (the leggy blonde pasted on the side of the ship was modeled after Branson’s mummy in her younger days) the WK2 carrier ship has not yet flown and has only undergone ground testing. Flight tests will begin in the Fall of 2008 and continue for an undisclosed amount of time.

“It was Stephen Hawking who first got me thinking about this issue, when he explained clearly and concisely to the BBC that mankind had no option but to get to space as quickly as possible,” said Branson in a speech before unveiling WK2.

Throughout the press conference, Branson made comparisons between the early years of air travel and Virgin Galactic’s plan to perpetuate commercial space travel. In the 1930s when commercial air travel first took off, only the upper class could take part because of high ticket prices. The same thing will be the case when Virgin Galactic launches, and ticket prices will range around the $200,000 mark - hardly affordable for the common man, but not out of reach for movie stars or CEOs.

“I think it’s very important that we make a genuine commercial success of this project,” Branson continued. “If we do, I believe we’ll unlock a wall of private sector money into both space launch systems and space technology. This could rival the scale of investment in the mobile phone and internet technologies after they were unlocked from their military origins and thrown open to the private sector.”

True, its seems as though outer space really is the final frontier in today’s vastly connected world. Nothing on Terra Firma seems to be newly discovered, besides the fact the icecaps are melting at an alarming rate. Yet, the very notion that a billionaire brit who has no real knowledge of space travel or aeronautics is going to be taking the credit for making space travel routine is a bit unsettling. Beneath Branson’s facade that these efforts will help facilitate new technologies to explore our future in space, it seemed all too clear that he is in it because he is primed to beef up his already over-beefed bank account.

Photography by Michelle Lanz