Virgin Galactic announced plans to be the world’s first space tourism operator, charging £115,000 for a two-hour flight aboard a private spaceship launched from the Mojave Desert in California.

Passengers were promised a window seat with a view stretching from Mexico to Canada, plus the opportunity to experience weightlessness for about five minutes.

But the simultaneous launch of Virgin’s tilting trains was overshadowed by a wheel fault which left one service limping along at 50mph, instead of a much heralded 125mph.

Space tourism has had many false dawns but Sir Richard’s venture has more credibility than previous attempts because he has teamed up with an aircraft designer with a proven track record in space flight.

In June, Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne became the first manned and privately owned vehicle to escape the bounds of the Earth’s atmosphere.

On Wednesday, Mr Rutan’s team will begin their attempt to win the X-Prize, the $10 million (£5.5 million) reward for the first three-man vehicle to reach the sub-orbital height of 62 miles twice in two weeks.

Sir Richard signed a licensing deal yesterday with Paul Allen, the Microsoft billionaire who funded SpaceShipOne, under which Virgin pays up to £14 million for the technology to build passenger versions of the craft.

Sir Richard said that he would spend a further £60 million building and testing the spaceships, constructing a “mothership” to carry them to 50,000ft, and creating a centre in the Mojave Desert where passengers would receive four days of pre-flight training.

Construction is due to begin before Christmas and Virgin will begin to take deposits for the first trips in January.

Flight testing is due to begin in 2006 and the inaugural passenger flight, carrying both Sir Richard and Mr Rutan, is pencilled in for early 2007.

Sir Richard said that he expected to carry out two flights a week, each carrying five passengers and a pilot.

In the event of the pilot losing control, the spaceship is designed to decelerate automatically as it falls to the ground.The spaceship is to complete between 50 and 100 test flights before seeking certification by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr Rutan said that the safety levels of the first Virgin excursions into space would only be similar to those of the early airliners.

Those who remember the spate of crashes which doomed the De Havilland Comet in the 1950s will find the comparison less than reassuring. But Mr Rutan said that safety would steadily improve over several years: “No one is going to guarantee that the early stages of commercial space flight will be as safe as flying on a 747.”

Prospective passengers will have to pass a medical test, but Virgin said that the requirements would be similar to those needed for a ride on an “advanced rollercoaster”. Mr Rutan said: “My father is 87. I want him to fly and he wants to fly.” Sir Richard quoted research claiming that more than 15,000 Americans were willing to pay at least £60,000 for a sub-orbital space flight.

More than 200 people have already paid deposits of £4,000 to Space Adventures, an American company taking bookings despite not yet having a proven spaceship. Sir Richard said that the £115,000 opening price was the “top end of the range”.

Meanwhile, Michael Fabricant, the Tory industry and technology spokesman, is planning to write to Sir Richard to ask him for assurances that his new venture will not distract Virgin from improving its train services.

He said: “Being stuck between Rugby and Nuneaton in a broken-down train is bad enough. Being lost in space is probably marginally worse.”

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