Beam me up Scotty

A Scottish pilot could be the first captain to fly tourists into space. David Mackay is the chief pilot for Virgin Galactic, which hopes to take commercial airline flights outside Earth's atmosphere within the next two years.

"I hope to be in space next year," says David Mackay.

The 55-year-old has held a "lofty ambition" to be a spaceman since he was a child in the far north of Scotland in the 1960s.

Source: BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20667659

Virgin Galactic: Space Ship Two

Ever since Richard Branson first announced his Virgin brand were going into the Final Frontier people laughed.

However some six years later and Space Ship Two is in testing.

Above is an artists impression of the sub-orbital spacecraft.

Richard Branson has a dream to commercialise space travel for the ordinary man and woman, after being inspired by fellow millionaire, Dennis Tito who went into Space as the world's first space tourist as a cosmonaut in 2001.

Star Trek's William Shatner was invited to be aboard the inaugural flight, but the TV legend politely declined saying: "At my age I need the guarantee of coming back down."