Virgin to announce Australia’s first space tourist

The company has called a  press event on Monday to talk about the technology behind its suborbital spaceships and to reveal which Australian is the first to shell out a cool US$200,000 for a Virgin Galactic ticket.

Both Virgin's head of astronaut sales, Carolyn Wincer and an accredited space [travel] agent (ASA) will be in town.

Virgin announced plans in 2004 to carry paying passengers on a journey to the stars - returning them to earth as astronauts two hours later.

The company reported at the start of last year that "well in excess of 200 individuals" had paid and another 85,000 registrations of interest to fly had been received.