Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire CEO of the Virgin group, turned heads a few years ago with his latest spacey venture. Branson plans to give eager makeshift astronauts a sub-orbital ride in space via his Virgin Galactic air/space-craft. This space tourism industry was founded in 2004 and is currently operated in New Mexico, USA, with Branson leading the charge.

Around 2002, a contest was launched to see which company could produce an aircraft that could fly into a sub-orbital space trip, return to Earth and make the trip again. Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, was part of the Mojave Aerospace Ventures project that won the $10 million contest in 2004. Their craft was named SpaceShipOne, and Branson was immediately trying to top it.

Branson helped create SpaceShipTwo, a lighter, faster aircraft able to fly higher and carry more passengers. It was released to the public in December of 2009, and it’s still undergoing testing to make sure it’s designed well enough to carry people into the Earth’s orbit and back repeatedly without incident. The ship is now being called the VSS (Virgin SpaceShip) Enterprise.

Space has always been the final frontier, and there was a time in human history when the exploration of this mysterious and indefinite universe was atop the list of things to do. Like many children, Branson admits to always feeling an attraction to space. His hope is that Virgin Galactic changes what we know about air travel completely.

Branson isn’t one to shy away from problems. He wants Virgin Galactic, if successful with the sub-orbital flights, to start offering full orbital launches. The difference in the two, simply explained, is that a sub-orbital flight doesn’t have the height or trajectory to orbit completely around the Earth. It never makes it quite out of the atmosphere, although it’s still technically “space.”

Once the aircraft is in the exosphere, with no oxygen and no immediate gravitational force, guests aboard Virgin Galactic will experience weightlessness for a few minutes and see a full view of outer space that’s not sullied by our atmosphere. The aircraft will quickly fly about ¼ around the Earth and then reenter the atmosphere, turn and come home.

With an orbital flight planned for the future, the hope will be to increase the weightlessness time by actually flying past the exosphere and entering into the Earth’s orbit, on the same trajectory that satellites fly. To get home, a thruster will be fired for the ship to reenter the atmosphere, just as shuttles return home now.

The price for Branson’s vision isn’t going to be cheap whatsoever. There’s already a flight in Europe that allows people to experience weightlessness in an aircraft for a few thousand dollars, but in order to see space, passengers must pay around $200,000 a piece. So far, over 300 people have signed up to pay the freight and take the flight.