You may be able to go to space as early as next year.

That's according to Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire serial entrepreneur who is also the founder of Virgin Galactic, the company that plans to make space travel available to the masses.

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Passengers will board the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) Enterprise, which recently just broke supersonic speeds in its second test flight, climbed to 69,000 feet above ground, and, Branson said, releases close to zero carbon emissions. The experience won't quite be like boarding a NASA space shuttle, but it will definitely provide views you can't get on a plane.

For now, though, travelers will have to pay $250,000 for a ticket. Commercial space travel is not yet cheap, but Branson believes this is very much the start of something huge, and not just cheaper joyrides outside the atmosphere.

"Through space travel, we're going to be able to do transformative things for the world," Branson said on stage at the Social Good Summit Tuesday. "We're going to be able to monitor if a ship is fishing illegally — we can spot it live through our satellites. We can check if people are hunting down rhinos."

For Branson, space travel is the mechanism by which a host of dreams are made real.

About Social Good Summit

The Social Good Summit is where big ideas meet new media to create innovative solutions and is brought to you by Mashable, The 92nd Street Y, The United Nations Foundation, The United Nations Development Programme, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Ericsson. Held during U.N. Week, the Social Good Summit unites a dynamic community of global leaders to discuss a big idea: the power of innovative thinking and technology to solve our greatest challenges.

Date: Sept. 22 through Sept. 24 Time: 12 to 6 p.m. each day Location: 92nd Street Y, 1395 Lexington Ave., New York, N.Y. Tickets are sold-out, but tune into the Livestream.

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BONUS: 10 Empowering Apps for Social Good

Social Good Summit Day 1

Image: Wikimedia Commons