UAE: Space odyssey

When your most famous construction project is called "The World," what do you do next?

Explore outer space, of course.

Leaders in the United Arab Emirates, home to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and luxury-drenched Dubai, are in talks with Virgin Galactic to launch flights into space from the UAE, according to a report in the latest issue of Arabian Business magazine. Government and civil aviation authorities are discussing a UAE-based spaceport, Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn told the magazine. Full story here.

Whitehorn said in the interview that the terrain and weather conditions in the UAE would make it an ideal base for space flights.

"There's good weather to operate all the year round, you get a spectacular view of both land, sea, sand, desert and mountains -- which is quite a nice combination," Whitehorn said.

He also told Arabian Business that there was high demand for the intergalactic flights from customers in the Middle East. More than 250 Virgin Galactic tickets have been sold worldwide, with another $36 million in deposits to reserve tickets.

“You’ve obviously got a lot of people in that part of the world (the Middle East) who’d love to go to space," Whitehorn said.

Virgin Galactic's main operating base is in New Mexico, but talks are under way for a space port in Sweden, along with the one proposed for the UAE. There is still no firm launch date for Virgin's space tourism plan. Virgin founder Richard Branson, who has been involved with several Dubai-based projects, is slated to be the first passenger.

Comments

[Rojo]

Ugh. It will be interesting to see what becomes of Dubai in the post-petroleum era that is rapidly approaching. Crumbling mega-projects will likely seem the height of folly in hindsight.

[teja]

Sesekali memang amat terasa bencinya terhadap bangsa arab.
Alasan- kerana yang dikejar dan ingin dicapai akan berakhir kesudahannya yakni kemegahan untuk diraih dunia.
Bukan bermaksud untuk memundurkan ummat tanpa teknologi tetapi di bahu siapakah Kesatuan Ummah,di bahu siapakah Kesatuan Negara Muslim upaya dibentuk untuk didirikan persefahaman setelah sekian lama Al-Aqsa dan warga Palestin tidak bernegara?
Apakah yang mudah dan cepat didapati tetapi pantas juga ia berakhir????: DUNIA DAN KEMEGAHAN.Apakah gagasan untuk ummah jika di bumi masih sekangka tanah tidak upaya dibela mahu diteroka angkasa yang memiliki Pencipta.
Telah bertemukah kita dengan tanda besar kiamat saat pengembala-pengembala kambing mulai mendirikan bangunan tinggi saat dan ketika suria ingin kembali sujud kepadda Allah kita masih mahu sujud kepada dunia.Kepantasan cahaya hitungan masanya tidak sama dengan di dunia,cahaya yang menembusi adalah kilauan para malaikat tetapi kita ini terlalu sedikit yang diketahui sebagai ilmu.Lama manakah kekayaan ingin dibazirkan sehingga yang miskin terus menderita?

[Sam]

Would be suicide, to expand to the UAE and Sweden while Virgin should whether the storm of the global credit crunch!

[Sam]

Oops, I meant *weather the storm.

plus i noticed this article was written way before there was a global recession!

Oh Well!