The first Emirati to fly into space will be revealed this week but Sir Richard Branson won’t be around to make the announcement, according to a spokesperson for Virgin Galactic. The commercial space arm of Branson’s Virgin empire has finalised the deal with a local UAE businessman who will ride into space in late 2009.

Virgin is currently busy building a secret mock-up of the Virgin Galactic space cabin, from which the UAE’s first space traveller will emerge on Wednesday at the Arabian Travel Market at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre. The spokesperson said: “We can confirm prices to fly into space are $200,000-a-head and we are now making a huge push for the Middle East.”

They did not comment on rumours Branson is looking at possible sites to build a Middle Eastern spaceport within five years - should demand for tickets from the region increase. The Virgin Galactic flights to space will launch from the Mojave Spaceport in the Californian desert until the Spaceport America facility in Mexico is finished.