First British Space Tourist to Be Revealed

First British Space Tourist to Be Revealed

The name of Britain's first space tourist is to be revealed within hours. He is one of around 40 people so far to have bought one of the £60,000 tickets aboard the space shuttle, Lynx.

The Space Expedition Curacao (SEC) group aims to take passengers from the Caribbean island of Curacao on one-hour flights into space. The plan is to eventually provide commercial flights that will make every city on Earth within two hours' reach.

Tickets for the joint project between Formula One tycoon Michiel Mol and Dutch airline KLM are half the price of Sir Richard Branson's rival Virgin Galactic, which aims to become the first private space tourism operator by taking off in 2013.

So far, seven people have flown on commercial orbital space missions, paying up to £20m to fly to the International Space Station. Only the Russian Space Agency currently provides opportunities for amateur astronauts to take to the stars. The first space tourist, Dennis Tito, an American businessman, visited the International Space Station for seven days in 2001.