World News for Students of English

26-02-2016 07:00

The shiny new Virgin Galactic has been unveiled. Standing tall and proud, the gleaming aircraft marked Virgin’s CEO’s Richard Branson’s return to the space race. Virgin Galactic is one of many companies competing to commercialize quick trips to space.

“Everyone’s worked so hard to build this spaceship and we’re really proud of the team. I mean, it’s… And my God, isn’t it beautiful?”

And to add a sentimental twist to the aircraft’s unveiling, the vessel was christened with a bottle of milk by Branson’s baby granddaughter. The two-pilot, six-passenger spaceship is designed to reach altitudes of 62 miles (100 kilometres), which will give its passengers a unique view of Earth set against the blackness of space. And 700 people have already signed up to this out-of-this-world experience, forking out an impressive $250,000 for the pleasure.

How long til we can hop over to outer space?

“The safety experts will tell me when, when they feel it’s a hundred per cent safe for us to fly, and then for people to fly and I will try to resist the urge to say, “I want to go to space!”

By the sounds of it, the prospect of popping over to space isn’t too far off!

Difficult words: unveil (to show people for the first time), gleaming (shining), CEO (a chief executive officer, the boss of a company), sentimental (emotional), twist (an element, an atmosphere), altitude (the height), vessel (a ship), fork out (to pay money for something), urge (a strong feeling of wanting to do something), prospect (a possibility).

Source: www.ondemandnews.com