Ove godine u Julu mesecu se navrsava 40-to godisnjica leta Apola 11 i sletanja na mesec,svemirski letovi u turisticke svrhe nikada nisu bili blizi.
Kompanija Virgin Galactic intezivno radi na projektu sub-orbitalnih letova.
Trenutno je kljucna stvar razvoj letelice nosaca - nazvane White Knight Two koja ce imati funkciju da ponese letelicu Space Ship Two do visine sa koje ce moci da izvrsi sub-orbitalni let.
Ocekuje se na Jesen 2009 prvi let White Knight Two do visine od oko 15000 metara na kojoj ce letelica Space Ship two upaliti svoje raketne motore i odvoiti se od maticne letelice.

Kompanija Scaled Composites je zaduzena za razvoj ove letelice

December 12, 2008 -- WhiteKnightTwo did a low speed taxi trial at Mojave
December 16, 2008 -- WhiteKnightTwo did a high speed taxi trial at Mojave
December 21, 2008 -- WhiteKnightTwo flew for the first time The two pilots were Peter Siebold and co-pilot Clint Nicols
February 5, 2009 -- Second test flight after some modifications to the airframe[22].
March 25, 2009 -- Third test flight into the troposphere was the fastest and longest yet: >140 knots and >18,000 feet. Seven additional tests were "successfully completed including in flight engine restarts, engine thrust asymmetry assessment and continued expansion of WK2’s operating envelope and evaluation of WK2’s handling qualities."
April 20, 2009 -- Scaled Composites announced that by September 2009, they expect to have flown WhiteKnightTwo at "high altitude", that is, the altitude at which SpaceShipTwo will fire its rockets, approximately 15,250m. The flight tests are expected to be complete by September, 2009.
Ovo je prvi korak ka buducim komercijalnim Svemirskim letovima.

Vise na Wiki

Bert Rutan! (ako se ne varam, on je sustinski tvorac letilice) to je genije