>>Mary Ann Ramsey wants to send you to outer space. Ramsey, president of Betty Maclean Travel and an affiliate of the Virtuoso luxury travel network, is Southwest Florida's only accredited space agent for Virgin Galactic, the new space tourism program launched by tycoon adventurer Sir Richard Branson.

For only $200,000, Virgin Galactic will make an astronaut of any traveler on one of its craft (a steal compared to the $450 million average for being part of a NASA launch). The first tourism launch is expected in late 2008 or early 2009.

What is the Virgin Galactic program?

It's going to be a travel adventure that's into sub-orbital space. Astronauts-that actually is what they're going to be called-they're going to have a three-day experience. [The first days will include] some training, orientation, some health [evaluations]-just a medical test, but not anything very detailed. They've got an aircraft that's going to climb to 50,000 feet, and then from 50,000 feet, the spaceship is going to release from the carrier, climb vertically, reach the speed of sound in 10 seconds and then four times the speed of sound in under 30 seconds. It's going to be a clean rocket, a hybrid-motor rocket. The whole flight is going to last about two hours from start to finish. They're going to go up to a maximum altitude of 75 miles. Just as a comparison, a regular aircraft travels at about 35,000 feet, and 75 miles is about 396,000 feet.

How did you become an accredited space agent?

Virgin Galactic looked for a group of consultants or travel specialists that they wanted to handle the sales of the astronaut program. What they were looking for were people who were passionate about that kind of travel, who had experienced unusual adventure travel and had clients who had unusual adventure travel [experience]. They wanted to know what I had done that was unusual. I had to tell them I've done the gorilla trekking in Uganda, I've been to Timbuktu by private jet, I've done heliskiing in the Canadian Rockies, I've done deep-sea fishing in the Maldives, I kayaked among the whales-that kind of stuff. What they really wanted was someone who was passionate about being passionate. And I think I fit the bill.

What's the local market like for space travel?

The response has been overwhelming. They are people who are looking for life experiences rather than a travel experience; that's what our clients like. They do innovative things-people like me who watched every space launch go up. I've had people in their 80s call me, and people who are younger. I'm a multi-generational travel specialist, and so I've had people who have been thinking about it for their families. Wouldn't that be the ultimate family trip?

How will this be different from what professional astronauts experience?

Well, the regular astronauts go orbital and this will be sub-orbital. But you'll get the weightlessness and you'll [see] the curvature of the Earth as you go up in space. You're able to see 1,000 miles in any direction. You'll get mostly everything.

Do you think you'll be making a trip into suborbital space?

I sure hope so! For Christmas, the staff got me a space suit. I wore it to work.

-Sammy Mack