“Our population is now heading to 9 billion people by the middle of this century… With the end of the oil era approaching, and climate change progressing faster than most models have been predicting, the utilisation of space is essential not only for communications but also for the logistics of survival through things such as weather satellites, agricultural monitoring, GPS and climate science,” said Richard Branson at the unveiling of SpaceShip Two, which he hopes will be the first to take paying passengers into space on a regular basis.

“I also believe that someday we will be able to use space as a source of energy for the planet, through solar power satellites, using the most sustainable source available — our Sun.”