Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson has visited the New Mexico desert to open the project’s spaceport. Not one to miss out on a publicity stunt, he was photographed abseiling down the side of the building spraying champagne. The crowd which gathered included some 150 passengers who have already purchased their tickets to fly to the edge of space, including astronaut Buzz Aldrin and Susana Martinez, governor of New Mexico.

Sir Richard described the $209 million spaceport as magnificent, adding that it had fulfilled the brief to appear ‘out of this world’. Tickets for the flights, which will last for two-and-a-half hours, are being sold for £200,000 each. The trip will involve passengers experiencing around five minutes of weightlessness.

Although commercial flights were scheduled to begin in 2007, the project has been delayed and powered test flights will begin at some point in the new year. Sir Richard said that he hopes the first passengers will go up soon afterwards.

Passengers will be transported to sub-orbital space on board WhiteKnightTwo. Those gathered in the New Mexico desert were treated to a flyby before being invited to explore the hangar. The Virgin boss said he wanted to make sure that everything was perfect before the first passengers are allowed to travel into space.

He added that the first people to go up would be himself and his children, so he certainly wanted everything to be thoroughly tested. The building of the spaceport had also been hit by delays because of issues with contractors.