Park Avenue Travel's Joshua Bush, Local Accredited Space Agent to Witness World Premiere of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo

Joshua Bush, CTA, vice president of Park Avenue Travel, one of only 50 travel consultants in the United States to have been hand-selected as a Virgin Galactic Accredited Space Agent (ASA), will attend the world premiere of SpaceShipTwo in Mojave, Calif., today. Bush is the only travel advisor in Pennsylvania accredited to reserve seats for trips to suborbital space.

The unveiling of SpaceShipTwo, developed by Scaled Composites, marks the next critical step in bringing space tourism to the general public. This exclusive event will be hosted by Virgin Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson and world-renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan.

"We've already taken deposits from clients for a space flight, and the unveiling of SpaceShipTwo moves us one step closer to actual travel," said Bush.

Since his appointment as an ASA, Bush has completed intensive product training with Virgin Galactic in order to provide the highly specialized information required for such a unique offering. Bush's training included going to Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., to learn about the history, physics, medical implications and specific flight details that are involved in suborbital flight, and experiencing weightlessness on ZERO-G, a specially modified Boeing 727.

"This training has allowed me to fully comprehend what people will experience in space and to accurately describe this phenomenon to potential astronauts on SpaceShipTwo," said Bush.

Based on the design of SpaceShipOne, the historic vehicle that completed three successful spaceflights in 2004, thus claiming the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, SpaceShipTwo is the next generation of spacecraft built for the specific purpose of taking passengers into suborbital space.

Already, 350 people from around the world have paid nearly $40 million in deposits to guarantee a seat. The cost of the flight is $200,000.

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