Space Tourism Not Expected To Begin Before 2013

Virgin Galactic's chief pilot says that its new timetable for the first commercial suborbital flights have been pushed to 2013, and the operation will ramp up more slowly than originally projected. Chief Pilot David Mackay said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that "we would certainly like to be in commercial operation by then."

The company had hoped fly its first commercial passengers in 2008, but the schedule has slipped by several years. Virgin Galactic officially has recently stopped making projections as to when the first paying passengers will start making flights to the fringe of space.

And, while the company had originally hoped to have several spacecraft making multiple trips per week, Mackay told the paper that the current plans call for one weekly flight "until we feel comfortable."

SpaceShipTwo is still undergoing unpowered glide tests, with more than 75 completed. Powered flights are expected to get underway next year.

But the company must still work out a regulatory agreement with the FAA before commercial passenger service can begin, and neither the company or the agency is saying just how long that will take.

FMI: www.virgingalactic.com, www.faa.gov