Craig Curran, an accredited travel agent for Virgin Galactic, the world's first space tourism business, has sold exactly two tickets since getting the job in early 2011. And one of those tickets was to himself.

To be fair, it's not easy selling $200,000 tickets (with a $20,000 deposit payable up front) for a suborbital day cruise in which the inaugural flight hasn't even been announced. It's basically selling a promise for something that will probably happen in the vague near future.

But as Curran prefers to think of it, his customers are "investing in the birth of an industry."

"They're not getting shares or a piece of the company," he clarified. "But they are trailblazers. They'll be among the first 500 civilians to leave the Earth's atmosphere."

Before Curran was picked to join Virgin Galactic's global sales team - he's one of 140 agents worldwide - the 30-year travel agent vet from Rochester, N.Y., had to prove that he has, as Tom Wolfe might say, the right stuff. In addition to marketing plans and a resume, he was asked to demonstrate an "enthusiasm for space travel."

And how does one demonstrate such a thing?

"I explained to them that I've been a passenger in fighter jets at air shows," Curran said. "I own a Ferrari. I've gone to high-speed driving schools. I like guns. I'm mechanically inclined and scientifically wired."

In other words, he represents the type of person who'd feasibly spend big money to be shot about 60 miles above the Earth's surface. Finding customers - gun-toting, science-loving, Ferrari-driving people like Curran - has been a unique challenge.

It's not like it was back in Curran's travel agent heyday in the '80s and '90s, when customers would actively seek him out. For space tourism, he's had to be creative.

"I do speaking engagements," he said. "I'll speak in front of anybody who'll have me."

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Space travel agent's creativity takes flight