Rutan Faults NASA on Apollo-Style Capsule

Commercial space travel pioneer Burt Rutan, right, developer of SpaceShipOne, speaks with Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart after Rutan's remarks on the opening day of the International Space Development Conference Thursday, May 4, 2006, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) (Reed Saxon - AP)

Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said Thursday the company is looking at possible future spaceports in the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Scotland or Sweden.

Virgin Galactic representatives recently visited Kiruna in northern Sweden to explore the possibility of launching suborbital flights that will allow passengers to see the Northern Lights, Whitehorn said.

Last summer, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Rutan, president of Mojave-based Scaled Composites LLC, agreed to form The Spaceship Company to build and market spaceships and launcher planes, licensing technology from a company owned by billionaire Paul G. Allen, who financed SpaceShipOne.

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On the Net:

Virgin Galactic: http://www.virgingalactic.com/en/

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/exploration/spacecraft/index.html

Scaled Composites: http:/ http://www.scaled.com