More than 150 people, including former Dallas star Victoria Principal, have signed up for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism programme, it was revealed today.

From the Johnson Space Centre in Texas to Capitol Hill in Washington DC, the relief was obvious when space shuttle Discovery safely returned to terra firma.

The inventors and moguls of the infant space tourism industry predict there will be deaths along the way, but that it’s worth it so regular people can one day blast into outer space.

A test pilot in a stubby rocket plane will try to climb more than 60 miles over California’s Mojave Desert and punch through the atmosphere today in the first stage of a quest to win a €8m prize meant to encourage space tourism.