Sir Richard Branson is confident that he will be able to send people to space by next year.
“The test program is going really well, and as long as we’ve got our brave test pilots pushing it to the limit we think that after whatever it is, 12 years of hard work, we’re nearly there.”
When asked further to say a date he said:
“I think I’d be very disappointed if we’re not into space with a test flight by the end of the year and I’m not into space myself next year and the progam isn’t well underway by the end of next year.”
Virgin Galactic first unveiled its SpaceShipTwo in February and in August got its operating license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
Reportedly 500 people have also reserved seats on the spaceship, which run $250,000 a piece.
