By Travelmail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 07:19 EST, 31 August 2012 | UPDATED: 07:19 EST, 31 August 2012

If the price of a ticket on Sir Richard Branson's planned Virgin Galactic space tourism programme seems a little out of your price range, don't despair.

Some 500 tourists have already signed up for the 128,000 two-hour flights, expected to launch next year, but Virgin Airlines' frequent flyers are being offered the chance to win a sub-orbital space flight.

Although it might take more than an annual holiday to Florida to clinch it.

Unearthly: An artist's impression of Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, 'the world's first commercial spaceline'

Entrants to the competition - dubbed Mission: Galactic - are required to clock up as many air miles as possible on Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia flights by August 7, 2013.

The 'total status points' will then be calculated, the winner reaching 'the ultimate status: Galactic.'

The runner-up will be rewarded with a zero-gravity flight on board a specially modified Boeing 727.

Tourist trips to space are on course to become a reality next year when the first of Sir Richard's flights soars 60 miles up into space on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) aircraft.

Read more here:

Virgin Airlines launches air miles competition to take lucky winner out of this world