Commercial space travel could be ready as early as 2020 – New York Post

Intrepid travelers could fly to space from a UK space port as soon as 2020 under new laws.

Commercial flights for people willing to go to infinity and beyond could be available in just three years.

Space travel has long been a dream for people hoping to explore the area outside our planet.

Richard Bransons Virgin Galactic and Dutch-founded Xcor are among those that could take passengers up to the final frontier when services go live.

In Virgin Galactics plans, astronauts would cost $250,000 for the flight into the Earths atmosphere.

SpaceX is also offering trips to the International Space Station after it made history in 2012 when it became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the space station.

Sunday night its Falcon 9 rocket launched on a mission to resupply the space station.

Under new powers unveiled this week, scientists will blast into space to conduct zero-gravity experiments in a bid to find cures for deadly bugs like MRSA and salmonella.

The laws allowing commercial flights to take off from UK space ports by 2020 will also permit researchers to carry out tests on potential new antibiotics in orbit.

The powers in the spaceflight bill will be revealed in Parliament this week.

It means a rocket spaceflight could take off from a space port in Britain before a new runway is built at Heathrow.

Science Minister Jo Johnson said the new powers would cement the UKs position as a world leader in an emerging market worth up to $26 billion (25 billion) over the next 20 years.

Space ports could be set up and satellites launched from regions across the UK under the plans.

Newquay in Cornwall; Llanbedr in Snowdonia; and three Scottish sites, Glasgow Prestwick, Campbeltown, and Stornaway in the Western Isles have all been shortlisted as potential space port sites.

Because of Britains position far from the equator, its likely space planes would take off from a horizontal runway rather than a rocket launch pad.

They will transport satellites up into orbit or take paying space tourists although its thought space tourism would only make up around 10 percent of the industry.

NASA scientists have been carrying out scientific research in space for the last five years.

This week US scientists sent the lethal MRSA bug up to the International Space Station for astronauts to study how the superbug becomes resistant to antibiotics.

Aviation Minister Lord Ahmad said the ambition was to launch a space flight from the UK as soon as possible.

He said: Our ambition is to allow for safe and competitive access to space from the UK, so we remain at the forefront of a new commercial space age.

Johnson added: From the launch of Rosetta, the first spacecraft to orbit a comet, to Tim Peakes six months on the International Space Station, the UKs space sector has achieved phenomenal things in orbit and beyond.

With this weeks spaceflight bill launch, we will cement the UKs position as a world leader in this emerging market, giving us an opportunity to build on existing strengths in research and innovation.

This article originally appeared on The Sun.

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Commercial space travel could be ready as early as 2020 - New York Post