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For those who've dreamed of being astronauts, there's good news. A Phoenix-area travel agent is selling tickets to the final frontier.

Out of this world? Absolutely. So is the price. A flight costs $200,000.

Betsy Donley is a travel agent with Camelback Odyssey Travel in Phoenix and a saleswoman for Virgin Galactic, one of several companies pioneering the space-tourism industry.

She is selling flights that will launch people into space for several minutes beginning in 2009, allowing people with the money, health — and the guts — to go where few have gone before. 

Donley hasn't booked any flights for Arizonans yet, but she said several people have shown interest. She thinks more will sign up once test flights in 2008 land safely — building confidence and intrigue.

More than 200 people worldwide have booked flights with Virgin. The first spots filled quickly after tickets went on sale in 2005. Virgin anticipates more than 500 seats will be sold by the first launch.

The company isn't the only one that's star-struck. Space Adventures, a Vienna, Va.-based business, already has sent four tourists into space.

But these flights are only the start of space tourism, said John Spencer, founder and president of the Space Tourism Society.

"The possibilities are limitless and universal," said Spencer, a former NASA designer and architect. "Because of the constant advances we have in technology, we will see it grow into a very large and important industry."

Space and lunar hotels, trips to Mars and space yachts, ships that orbit the Earth, are in the not-so-distant future, he said. 

Virgin Galactic's flights will carry two pilots and six passengers into space for five to six minutes — enough time to float around and peer out at the world below.

The spaceship will take off attached below a jet plane from a New Mexico spaceport. At an altitude of 50,000 feet, the ship will drop and its rockets will ignite, starting it on a vertical climb into space. 

The Federal Aviation Administration will regulate the safety of the industry. But for now, Congress has set the standard of "informed consent": Companies are required to give only a written notice of the potential risks of an outer-space sojourn.

Virgin's spaceship was developed in 2001 for a competition to create the first reusable spaceship.

The contest, Ansari X Prize, carried a $10 million award and was intended to be the launching pad for the commercial space industry. 

Virgin Galactic won the contest and later redesigned its craft, the Virgin Spaceship 2.

Virgin Spaceship 2 uses a special wing design that acts like the net on a badminton shuttlecock.

The wings fold above the ship to decrease speed and allow it to slip through the atmosphere without damaging the vessel.

During the first months, Virgin will launch twice a week. But as reservations increase and rates fall — possibly as low as $50,000 — officials hope to shuttle two flights a day.

Before their trip, passengers will spend three days in a five-star hotel at the spaceport. For those days, they'll get a lesson on living in zero gravity — completing physical and educational training and undergoing a medical evaluation.

During the flight, the ship will break the sound barrier, reaching four times the speed of sound — a feat that sounds intimidating. But Donley said people in good health shouldn't worry. "If you can fly in a plane, you can take a space flight," Donley said.

While Virgin Galactic is reaching for the stars, another company is shooting for the moon.

Spaces Adventures is working on expeditions that will circle the moon.

A date for its first voyage hasn't been set but a price has. The bill: $100 million.