Mark Rocket first New Zealander to book Virgin space flight

May 22, 2006

Mark Rocket, a Christchurch Internet entrepreneur, has purchased a $300,000 flight into space with Virgin Galactic.

In 2008 he will take off for space from the Mojave Desert, near Los Angeles in an eight man spacecraft. He will spend about 10 minutes in space.

He has said that he always wanted to go into space ever since seeing the first Star Wars movie. He even changed his name because of the movie, but won't say what from.

He has already been to California to see the development of the rocket and visited the International Space Development Conference.

Mark Rocket said: "I guess I'm just a real space nut."