MEDIA ALERT
DECEMBER 7, 2009 – MOJAVE, CA

House of Travel’s Local Accredited Space Agents to Witness World Premier of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo

20 November

House of Travel outlets in Botany Junction, Nelson and Palmerston North are the only travel retailers in New Zealand to be invited to attend the world premiere of SpaceShipTwo, the space vehicle developed by Scaled Composites to take private passengers to space. This exclusive event, hosted by Virgin Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson and world renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan, will take place in Mojave, CA on December 7, 2009.

The three House of Travel retailers are the only travel agencies in New Zealand to have been hand-selected as a Virgin Galactic Accredited Space Agent (ASA), having completed intensive product training with Virgin Galactic in order to provide the highly specialized information required for such an exciting and unique offering.

Virgin Galactic’s remarkable and pioneering project is now in its final stages. The unveiling of SpaceShipTwo marks the next critical step in bringing space tourism to the general public, a privilege that has been limited to astronauts and those with the means to spend $20 million for a flight. With a comparatively lower price of US$200,000, House of Travel is one of the few travel agency groups in the world with the ability to attend this groundbreaking event and accept deposits for this once-in-a-lifetime journey.

Based on the design of SpaceShipOne, the historic vehicle that completed three successful spaceflights in 2004, thus claiming the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, SpaceShipTwo is the next generation of spacecraft built for the specific purpose of taking passengers into suborbital space. WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier aircraft that will launch SpaceShipTwo from 50,000 feet, was unveiled in July 2008 and is well into a successful test flight program. Following SpaceShipTwo’s unveiling in December 2009, this revolutionary spacecraft will immediately embark on an extensive test flight regime. Already, approximately 300 people from around the world have paid nearly $40 million in deposits to guarantee an early seat.

ENDS

Gordon Campbell: On John Key’s Agenda For The Nation

There seemed to be three main components to John Key’s speech:

a) tax cuts largely paid for by a hike in GST
b) mining in national parks and on conservation land, while building more roads.
c) giving firms easier access to the r&d from Crown Research Institutes, so that business can continue to get the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the research that keeps them competitive.

After all, corporate welfare is always such a blessed thing – its only social welfare that corrodes enterprise and ambition. More>>