“2008 will really be the year of the spaceship,” said Sir Richard Branson, the British serial entrepreneur and owner of Virgin Records at the heavily attended press conference at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. Sir Richard, who founded a company, Virgin Galactic, that promises to take tourists on brief trips to the edge of space, was there to show off the sleek pod of a spacecraft and its spidery carrier plane.

WhiteKnight, a two-fuselage, four-engine plane in its new incarnation, will ferry the smaller spacecraft high into the sky and release it. The spacecraft pilot then fires the craft’s rocket engine, which burns a combination of nitrous oxide and a rubber-based solid fuel, and shoots the vehicle upward to an altitude of more than 62 miles, the realm of black sky.

Once there, the pilot is to activate the craft’s innovative feathered wing, which rotates into a position that greatly increases aerodynamic drag and slows the craft for a glider landing back on earth.

About 100 of the company’s prospective passengers were on hand at the unveiling in Manhattan Wednesday. Stephen Attenborough, the company’s liaison with its clients — or, as the company calls them, its astronauts — said that Virgin Galactic had received 200 firm reservations and $30 million in deposits.

via nytimes.com

I assure you, folks. This is NOT a hoax. If any of you have ever seen the MTV Cribs episode with Sir Richard Branson giving a tour of his island (yes, he owns his own PRIVATE ISLAND), then you know this dude has serious paper. So what's left to do when your net worth is already in the billions? Why not build a spaceship and fly people to space? Must be nice to have that kind of money.

We're currently making arrangements to take the trip. It may be a while, but we'll get there. Don't worry, you know we'll save you a seat!

For more information and pics, hit up virgingalactic.com