It never crossed my mind to ask my girlfriend if she was worried at me signing up to be one of the first space tourists. She knew I was into it and said I should just go for it.
When I was at university the guy who built the spaceship we'll fly in, Burt Rutan, was our god. I was at Trinity College, in Dublin, studying astronautics and we learned to have so much respect for him.
I had a year out after Trinity and was supposed to go on to Stanford University, but instead I set up a software company. Initially I was incredibly poor, then business picked up. I ended up sticking with it and sold up just before the dotcom crash. I was 31 at the time and made around €6m (£4m).
My primary reason for doing this is slightly different to what you might imagine. Of course I'm incredibly excited, but the main reason I'm doing it is so others can too. It shouldn't be an exclusive thing, this should be shared by everyone. So far, high prices and low demand have made it next to impossible. Tourism could be just the kick-start for a much bigger orbital business.
I've studied this, I'm happy it's a very safe design and I'm lucky enough to have the money, so if I don't do it, how the heck can I hope anyone else will? You've got to try these things.
