Ashton Kutcher is boldly going where few men have gone before — space.
Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, has announced that Kutcher purchased a ticket on his Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, which has been dubbed the VSS Enterprise. Branson says that Kutcher is the 500th person to sign up for a flight on the aircraft.
“Great news today from our Astronaut Relations team at Virgin Galactic: our 500th future astronaut customer has just signed up! Even better news is that number 500 is Ashton Kutcher,” Branson wrote on his blog yesterday. “I gave Ashton a quick call to congratulate and welcome him. He is as thrilled as we are at the prospect of being among the first to cross the final frontier (and back!) with us and to experience the magic of space for himself.”
A ride on the VSS Enterprise reportedly costs $200,000. For that price, passengers will lift off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in New Mexico on the SpaceShipTwo, which will be attached to a carrier plane. At 50,000 feet, the SpaceShipTwo will split from its mothership and fly 62 miles to the limits of space, where passengers will experience weightlessness. Passengers will reportedly be able to see both space as well as the curvature of Earth.
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Flight tests for the SpaceShipTwo are expected to begin this year. In fact, Branson has said that he hopes to take his family members for a ride on the aircraft for Christmas, reports MSNBC. Virgin hopes to have commercial service begin in 2013. It’s unclear when Kutcher would take his flight, as there can only be six passengers aboard the aircraft at a time. Virgin expects to book travel in roughly the order customers signed up.
Reports have claimed that Tom Hanks, Katy Perry, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are on the VSS Enterprise’s flight list as well. Branson has said that all celebrities will be paying their own way, as the only free ride he is giving is to physicist Stephen Hawking.