Investment Chief for Aabar Investments, which is controlled by the government of Abu Dhabi, said it will be possible for passengers on the Virgin Galactic to travel to Abu Dhabi in two to three hours. Earlier this year Aabar bought a 32 percent stake in Sir Richard Branson’s commercial space project for $289 million. Aabar chairman Al Qusaibi explained “The point here is to use Abu Dhabi and LA as a hub, or somewhere in the US, and to fly from Abu Dhabi and land in the other place in two or three hours.”
Virgin Galactic is ready to begin commercial flights into space and will charge each passenger $200,000. Al Qusaibi said he is not concerned about reports the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States launched investigations into the agreement between Virgin Galactic and Aabar. He said everything is going forward smoothly and the US government wants to make sure the country to serve as a hub for this service complies with all rules and laws. He does not expect the approval process to take longer than a few weeks.
