Two Chinese to Become Space Tourists

The trip will cost around US$200,000 and include 30 minutes in space and five minutes at zero gravity. The company intends to send 520 people into space in about 100 launches during its first year.

One woman and one man will take the space trip, a Virgin agent for China said.

"Our goal is to end the exclusivity attached to manned space travel, which means designing a privately-built vehicle which can fly almost anyone to space safely without the need for special expertise or exhaustive, time consuming training," read a statement from Virgin Galactic.

The Virgin trips require only three days of pre-flight preparation. Previous space tourism in government-built shuttles required six months of training.

Virgin Galactic will launch its test flight late next year and commercial operations a "little over a year later."

Four people have paid US$20 million each to become space tourists, including American Anousheh Ansari. She went to the International Space Station in September.