Stephen Attenborough

The Virgin Galactic business model is pretty simple. You license spacecraft technology from the winner of the X-prize, the first successful private spaceship developer.

Then you build a spaceship using this technology for commercial space travel, sign up customers on a website and get them to pay refundable deposits, conduct extensive safety tests, and create huge worldwide publicity for the company at little advertising cost by engaging one of the world's leading self-publicists.

Sir Richard Branson says the spaceship will be as safe as private aviation today, and that 80% of the population would be fit enough to fly in it, including his 91-year old father who 'just can not wait to go up'. But why the optimism over safety in an industry prone to spectacular disasters with one in 64 shuttle flights ending in tragedy?

'Safety first is one of the principles of this technology,' explains Stephen Attenborough, CEO of Virgin Galactic. 'It is a simple design. Re-entry is by floating through the atmosphere rather than ballistically like a space shuttle which generates a lot of heat.

'The hybrid rocket engine uses nitrous oxide, which is laughing gas, and rubber, and is inherently safer than the highly combustible fuels used in other rockets.'

Virgin Galactic has committed $25 million to this project so far, and it soon emerges that Sir Richard Branson has pulled his usual trick of a relatively small cash contribution for a very large share in the resulting publicity. Brand-equity leverage is the business school term.

'The State of New Mexico has committed $225 million and we also have federal funds too. It is in the long-term interests of the State to have the spaceport, and a desert location is ideal. The skies of New Mexico can also be closed to other aviation.'

The spaceport will be shaped like a human eye, and is sold as a coup for New Mexico. Perhaps not surprisingly Sir Richard Branson and his team are to talk to the Dubai authorities this week about building a second spaceport in Dubai, which is also a desert location with clear skies, and is never been slow to miss a good global marketing opportunity. But is Virgin Galactic really a viable business, or the biggest publicity stunt of the 21st century?

'Absolutely this is a viable business, and we already have several other competitors out there,' says Mr. Attenborough. 'One group has been selling tickets for $100,000 but they don't have a spaceship yet, and we think that is too cheap for tickets to make a viable business proposition.

Clearly without a spaceship nobody is going anywhere, but will Virgin Galactic really be ready to put a fare-paying passenger in space by 2008? What about the vigorous testing of a new aircraft, let alone a spaceship?

'Actually it is surprisingly simple. The US Federal Aviation Authority has set out the legal framework for commercial space activities and we have to ensure that passengers are fully aware of the risks involved in this sort of transport.'

The Virgin Group also brings considerable experience in operating an airline which has many similarities to space travel, and passengers should take confidence from its decision to bet the future of its brand on this technology and tackle the final frontier.