Tired of making the usual holiday trek to the bush or those overcrowded Ballito beaches? Perhaps it’s time to expand your horizons. Beyond the boundaries of Earth, that is. If you happen to have $200 000 (roughly R1.6 million) to spare, you can join the likes of Sir Richard Branson, Ashton Kutcher, Formula 1 drivers Rubens Barrichello and Niki Lauda, scientists James Lovelock and Stephen Hawking, and even Brangelina – who have all secured their places on the first few flights to outer space courtesy of Virgin Galactic. Apart from rubbing shoulders with celebs and other well-minted folk in close quarters, the Galactic experience includes astronaut training, ‘G force’ acclimatisation, and a ‘sensational sub-orbital spaceflight that will take passengers more than 100km above the Earth’s surface to enjoy weightlessness and life-changing views’. To date, over 500 adventure seekers have put down the $20 000 deposit required to reserve their seat on what Branson hopes will be the world’s first commercial spaceline.

Virgin Galactic, which Branson has described as ‘by far and away my boldest venture’, is owned by the Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS. With its new spaceship (SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise) and carrier aircraft (WhiteKnightTwo, VMS Eve) undergoing intensive tests, Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides says the company is ‘roughly on track’ for a late 2013 commercial launch. In June, Galactic and its partner Scaled Composites were granted an experimental launch permit from the US Federal Aviation Administration – the first for a manned experimental aircraft.