Virgin Spaceship Firm Gets Big Boost From Mideast

WhiteKnightTwo is pulled into the show grounds Monday July 27, 2009 at the Experimental Aircraft...

WhiteKnightTwo is pulled into the show grounds Monday July 27, 2009 at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture convention in Oshkosh, Wis. British billionaire Sir Richard Branson hopes to use WhiteKnightTwo to carry a spaceship into the upper atmosphere. The spaceship would then detach and rocket into space. Branson hopes to use the system to create a commercial space travel business. (AP Photo/Mike Roemer)

(AP)

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson signed a deal Tuesday to sell about a third of his space travel startup Virgin Galactic to a Mideast investment fund, giving the venture an influx of cash at a time when the global recession has dried up funding sources.

Aabar Investments will pay $280 million for a 32 percent share of the company, according to the agreement that also gives the wealthy Persian Gulf sheikdom of Abu Dhabi a chance to set up its own space flight industry.

Branson and Aabar CEO Mohamed Al-Husseiny signed the deal on a wind-swept runway at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture convention, next to the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft designed to launch a ship into space. Branson, decked out in black Virgin flight suit, took his first ride in WhiteKnightTwo minutes after signing the paperwork.

"I'm looking forward to getting into the plane now," Branson told scores of onlookers after he signed and shook Al-Husseiny's hand. He then immediately left the stage and climbed aboard.

Virgin Group has pumped more than $100 million into its space flight venture since 2004. The company is working to develop flight vehicles with Scaled Composites, the Mojave, Calif.-based aeronautical firm that won the X Prize to build the first privately funded manned space ship.

Branson envisions using planes like the twin-fuselage WhiteKnightTwo to lift satellites and passenger spacecraft to about 50,000 feet from a base in New Mexico. The satellite or spacecraft would then detach from the plane and blast into space.

Virgin Galactic officials hope to begin commercial flights within two years. The company hasn't yet proven it can take people into space and bring them back, but it's already taken 300 reservations for $200,000 each.

Aabar, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the most active investment funds in Abu Dhabi, the richest of seven semiautonomous sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates with almost all the country's vast oil reserves.