They’ve booked $20,000 deposits from three takers so far, including the owner of one of the agencies, David Mendal of Forest Travel of Aventura. They’re also talking with at least 30 other customers in South Florida about buying packages once the space trips start — likely next year, executives said Wednesday.

Branson himself plans to take the first Virgin Galactic trip with his mom and adult children in the spaceship that would depart from Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert.
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The WhiteKnightTwo will be attached under a “lifting craft” jet, flown to roughly 50,000 feet and detached. Using a hybrid engine, it then will shoot to about 65 miles above the planet, “to a height where you can see 1,000 miles in every direction, and you will see the blue ring of the earth’s atmosphere,” said Peter Friedman of Unique Travel in Delray Beach.