Bea's space mission

Nov 13, 2006, 13:30 GMT

Britain's Princess Beatrice is to become the first royal to travel into space.

The 18-year-old princess - the daughter of Prince Andrew and ex-wife Sarah Ferguson - has signed up to be a passenger on Sir Richard Branson's first Virgin Galactic suborbital voyage in 2008.

Beatrice was reportedly persuaded to take a seat on the flight by her boyfriend David Clark, who works in the project's sales and marketing division.

David told Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper: "I'm absolutely going to get Beatrice on board and she's very keen to do it. I've been on at her about it and she took some persuasion, but she has agreed to do it."

A friend of Beatrice's added: "I imagine going down as the first royal in space would be a huge incentive for her to go on the flight."

David - who has been dating the royal ever since they were introduced by her cousin Prince William in the summer - did not reveal whether Beatrice would be paying the £100,000 for the space ticket.

Before taking part in the mission, passengers will be put through an intensive four-day training course at the Virgin space camp in the Mojave Desert in the US.

Once prepared, they will board the mother ship, which will take them 70,000 feet into the Earth's stratosphere, before launching the spacecraft into the orbit.

Over 135,500 people have already signed up to become "space tourists" and Sir Richard is planning on being on the first spacecraft, along with his family.

(C) BANG Media International