If proven maverick Sir Richard Branson believes this will be 'the year of the spaceship,' then space afficionados should take heed.

Branson unveiled a 1/16th model of Virgin Galactic's Spaceflight System  - the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane and the air-launched SpaceShipTwo spacecraft – at the American Museum of Natural History. The Zefram Cochrane of Branson’s vision is Burt Rutan, the aerospace pioneer who built and designed both craft that form the system. Rutan was the winner of the Ansari X Prize for suborbital flight. Virgin Galactic's spaceship will ferry six passengers to suborbital space and back while the WhiteKnightTwo carrier also doubles up as a space tourist training facility. The first great leap for the paying public – tickets are priced at US$200,000 – is scheduled for 2009.