Richard Branson has spoken of the ‘explosion’ in space travel which he expects to come to fruition over the next few years, as private space travel ventures such as Virgin Galactic begin to gather pace.

“It’s going to be an explosion of people having had the chance to go into space and enjoy the marvels of space travel,” explained the Virgin Group founder to USA Today.

“In the past 30 years, only 500 people have been to space. I suspect in the next 30 years there may be something like five million people who will have had the opportunity to become astronauts.”