Today, at a press conference at Spaceport Sweden in Kiruna, Virgin Galactic announced its plans to select a small number of Scandinavia’s elite travel professionals to act as its representatives across the region and to lead the way in enabling aspiring astronauts to realise their dreams of experiencing space. Virgin Galactic extended an open invitation to the travel industry to apply for the exclusive and coveted Accredited Space Agent status. It plans to announce the names of those that have been successful during “TUR 2009” in Gothenburg in March 09.

Stephen Attenborough and Olle Norberg Press imageses

Stephen Attenborough, Virgin Galactic’s Commercial director said: ‘We are looking for individuals, teams or companies that have a proven track record as leaders in providing high-end, unique travel experiences and who can convince us that they are as passionate as we are about making commercial space travel a safe, affordable and viable new sector of the travel industry. We are particularly interested to hear from those who can show they have an engrained culture of outstanding customer service that is both personalized and discrete and who pride themselves on the highest levels of product knowledge. By selecting the very best in the field we can be confident that our future Scandinavian astronauts will be getting the best possible care and attention when booking their spaceflights. Our new Scandinavian Accredited Space Agents will be joining an exclusive group of around 90 hand picked representatives in 33 countries around the world’

Olle Norberg, chairman of Spaceport Sweden said: ’We are looking forward to the announcement in March this year when the winning Accredited Space Agents will become part of a truly unique and exciting new sector within both space and tourism. Spaceport Sweden will provide infrastructure, services and adventures for space tourism. Having Accredited Space Agents in Scandinavia means greater local expertise in this field and will add a valuable extra dimension to the existing strong relationship between Spaceport Sweden and Virgin Galactic.”

For further enquiries and information on Virgin Galactic please contact:
Stephen Attenborough
Commercial director at Virgin Galactic
Phone: +44 7881 522025
Email: stephen.attenborough@virgingalactic.com
or see the Virgin Galactic website for information and image downloads www.virgingalactic.com

For further enquiries and information on Spaceport Sweden please contact:
Johanna Bergström-Roos
Information Manager at Spaceport Sweden and Esrange Space Center (Swedish Space Corporation)
Phone: +46 980 720 24 or +46 70 544 60 21
E-mail: johanna.bergstrom-roos@ssc.se