Cullen insists he’ll be first Irishman in orbit but space expert begs to differ

THE Apprentice’s Bill Cullen has reasserted his claim to be the first Irishman in orbit after comments from another Irish businessman suggested he could be beaten to the spacecraft door.

Entrepreneur and space enthusiast PJ King, 41, was quoted on American news station CNN as claiming he was looking forward to being on board the first commercial space flight on Virgin Galactic, which could be flying into orbit within the next 18 months.

The space craft had its first manned commercial flight test on October 10 when pilots flew the craft over the Mojave desert in California.