THE space race is set to enter a new phase with the unveiling of the design for Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo on Wednesday January 23rd. Test flights will begin later this year. Passengers will make short sub-orbital trips in the new machine, which might also eventually be used to carry payloads into space. Hundreds of people have put down some $30m in deposits for trips that are at first expected to cost $200,000 each for about five minutes defying Earth's gravitational pull.