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		</div><p>Richard Branson is set to unveil the new Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo as the company pushes ahead in the race to send passengers into space.</p>
<p>Appearing on Good Morning Britain, the billionaire businessman stood in front of the &#8220;mothership&#8221;, with the big reveal of the newest craft set to happen in California later on Friday.</p>
<p>Designed to take thrill-seekers into space, seats on the ride, which can carry six passengers at a time, will cost $250,000 with more than 700 people said to have signed up for the journey so far.</p>
<p>SpaceShipTwo&#8217;s arrival signals a return to testing for Virgin Galactic, the arm of the tycoon&#8217;s empire that hopes to be the first to take tourists on trips into space.</p>
<p>Mr Branson said people &#8220;expect companies like Virgin to push forward&#8221; and that after Friday&#8217;s unveiling, rigorous testing will take place over the next 12 months.</p>
<p>He said that &#8220;hopefully&#8221; they are &#8220;nearly at the end of a 10-year programme&#8221; to get Virgin Galactic this far.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will send people to space once pilots have tested the ship time and time and time again,&#8221; Mr Branson told the ITV show.</p>
<p>In 2014 the commercial space programme suffered a setback when one pilot was killed and another seriously injured during a test flight of the prototype space tourism rocket.</p>
<p>Just over a year since the death, he told GMB: &#8220;Obviously it was a horrendous day when it happened and I must admit we had moments where I questioned if we should carry on.</p>
<p>&#8220;Talking to engineers and astronauts and family members and the public, we got all the feedback and it was apparent there was no way we could stop.&#8221;</p>
<p>He added: &#8220;Nasa had issues in its time, it is part of the process of trying to achieve things that we have not before.&#8221;</p>
<p>The team behind the latest suborbital spaceplane includes leaders from Nasa&#8217;s mission control and astronaut corps, the militaries from three nations and from the top flight of the aviation and transport industries.</p>
<p>Virgin Galactic said: &#8220;We&#8217;ve charged them with developing a plan to safely test and operate a reusable spacecraft. They have done their homework and subjected their processes to expert external reviews, and they are eager to take the proverbial keys to SpaceShipTwo.&#8221;</p>
<p>Mr Branson announced last July that the programme was &#8220;back on track&#8221; after the conclusion of an investigation by US authorities into the doomed October 2014 test flight.</p>
<p>Test co-pilot Michael Alsbury died when a prototype broke apart over the Mojave desert. A probe by the National Transportation Safety Body found the crash was caused by a catastrophic structural failure triggered when the co-pilot unlocked the craft&#8217;s braking system early.</p>
<p>Transforming Richard&#8217;s dream of commercial spaceflight from the drawing board to the launchpad required &#8220;clever ideas, lots of hard work, and above all else, lots and lots of testing&#8221;, the company said on Thursday.</p>
<p>Admitting that the flight into space would be a short one,Mr Branson told BBC Breakfast the initial trips would not be &#8220;enormously long&#8221; as they are suborbital space flights, but with &#8220;spectacular views&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;In time we will go on to doing orbital flights, which could be as long as two or three weeks,&#8221; he added. &#8220;One day we would love to build a Virgin hotel in space.&#8221;</p>
<p>He said as a company they have &#8220;lots and lots of dreams going on&#8221;, and they are &#8220;working hard to turn them into reality&#8221;.</p>
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