Virgin Galactic Beefs Up North American Space Tourism Sales Staff

PRESS RELEASE

Virgin Galactic has announced 18 new Virtuoso travel advisors as “Accredited Space Agents” (ASAs). These hand-selected advisors join 56 previous ASAs — all members of leading luxury travel network Virtuoso, which pioneered the ASA Program when Virgin Galactic first appointed Virtuoso as its exclusive retail sales channel throughout the Americas in 2006. The new ASAs will join an elite group of just 120 travel consultants around the globe that Virgin Galactic have selected to take consumer deposits for their spaceflights. Advisors underwent a rigorous application process. Now through the vetting process, they will undergo intensive training with Virgin Galactic, ensuring they have the expert knowledge to guide prospective space customers.

Upon successful completion of their training, these 18 new ASAs will join approximately 100 other ASAs from around the world at Virgin Galactic’s second annual Global ASA Forum. The ASAs are invited to the unveiling of SpaceShipTwo, the first space vehicle of its kind developed to take private passengers to space. The newly appointed ASAs will be among 100 travel consultants from around the world to attend the event in Mojave, Calif., which will be hosted by Virgin founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson, along with aircraft designer Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites.

The new agents are:

• Tony Cardoza, Cardoza Travel Service, Palo Alto, Calif.;
• Marc Casto, Casto Travel, San Francisco;
• Francis Contreras, Coronado Travel, Coronado, Calif.;
• Carmella Sears, Mansour Travel, Beverly Hills, Calif.;
• Ezana Araya, Andavo Travel, Greenwood Village, Fla.;
• Beverly Rother, Forest Travel, Miami;
• Gene Lashley, Century Travel, Atlanta;
• Kevin Loveless, Global Travel, Boise, Idaho;
• Kathy Burns Lamphier, Posh Travel, Greenland, N.H.;
• Lindsey Dwyer, BTI The Travel Consultants, Syracuse, N.Y.;
• Robin Sanders, Sanders Travel Centre, Fort Worth, Texas;
• Michelle Melroy-Alnawafleh, Melroy World Travel Agency, Salt Lake City;
• Karen Kilyk, Covington International Travel, Glen Allen, Va.;
• Gary Johnson, Woodside Travel, Seattle, Wash.;
• David Lowy, Renshaw Travel, Vancouver;
• Andrew Mortimer Lamb, Renshaw Travel, Vancouver;
• Claus Christensen, Vision 2000, Vancouver; and
• Carmen Teresa Targa, Condado Travel, San Juan, P.R.