KEY POINTS:
Christchurch internet entrepreneur Mark Rocket didn't wait for yesterday's official New Zealand launch of ticket sales for Virgin Galactic space flights.
A self-confessed space nut - who changed his surname from Stevens to reflect his obsession - Mr Rocket put down the US$200,000 ($290,000) needed to buy one
of the first 100 seats more than a year ago. If Sir Richard Branson's plan to develop commercial space flights goes to schedule, he should take off from the spaceport in the Mojave Desert, New Mexico, early in 2009.
"It's one of my lifetime goals to get into space," he said yesterday. "I've always been interested in space travel and I had been following the development of the new generation of spacecraft very closely.
"Then Virgin Galactic was announced and I thought, 'Well, why not get in touch with them and see what it's all about?'
"I went through their website, that night got a call from Virgin Galactic headquarters in London, and after hearing their sales pitch I wanted to sign up straight away."
Mr Rocket said his family supported his going into space. "My partner, Francesca, wants me to get her a ticket as well."
And has he? "No, no. Not yet. But as tickets come down in price I think it's going to get more affordable for everyone.
"After all, the first wave of space tourists to the international space station were paying US$20 million [$28.8 million]. The second wave are paying US$200,000."
House of Travel, Virgin Galactic's local agent, thinks more New Zealanders will feel the same way.
"Kiwis are great travellers and they're always looking for new experiences," said the chain's retail director, Brent Thomas. "We spend a higher proportion of our money on travel than anyone else.
"Overseas - in the US, say - space travel may be the sort of thing the super-rich do because it's ... the thing to do.
"But in New Zealand I think we'll find more ordinary people - the farmer who's just sold his dairy farm, or the guy who runs a successful small business - will want to take this chance," Mr Thomas said.
About a fifth of the 10,000 or so people who have registered an interest in the space flights are from New Zealand and Australia.
"That's a higher proportion than from any other part of the world," said head of astronaut sales Carolyn Wincer, who comes from Nelson, "so that's why this is one of the first places we've appointed local representatives."
Space travel has been just over the horizon for so long that it's easy to be sceptical about Virgin Galactic's plans.
But Ms Wincer points out that the technology - a carrier aircraft and a small rocketship - is based on the system that three years ago won the US$10 million ($14.4 million) X-prize offered to anyone who could develop a reusable spacecraft able to go 100km from Earth twice within 14 days.
Sir Richard has ordered five of a new generation of those ships, each able to take six passengers and two pilots. The first is due for delivery in October or November this year.
"After that," said Ms Wincer, "we'll have 18 months of testing to ensure everything is absolutely right.
"The inaugural flight for Sir Richard and his family will probably be early 2009 and then immediately after that we'll commence carrying our commercial passengers."
Passengers will get a flight lasting just over two hours, with about four minutes floating in space, experiencing weightlessness and seeing both the black of space and the curved brilliantly coloured shape of Earth. "It will," said Ms Wincer, "be the ride of a lifetime."
She is determined to go. "I've already started my training, including sessions on the centrifuge to simulate weightlessness. I hope to be on one of the final test flights. Failing that I might have to get myself waitlisted and find a way to inject passengers with flu virus ... Don't quote me on that."
