Travel entrepreneur is out of this world

Local travel agency owner Ryan Hilton, who goes by a second title, “virtuoso accredited space agent,” says space travel for paying customers is close to a reality.

Hilton should know: He's the only travel agent on the Gulf Coast accredited to sell tickets for the Virgin Galactic Spaceship program run by British entrepreneur Richard Branson. Hilton, who co-owns Sarasota-based Admiral Travel International with his wife, Malaka Hilton, has been involved with the program, which sells suborbital space flight trips for non-astronauts, for more than four years.

Hilton recently traveled to Spaceport America in Las Cruces, N.M., where he met with engineers and others with the program, including Branson and prominent aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. Hilton says SpaceShipTwo, the spacecraft Virgin Galactic built for the journey, recently passed a series of key flight tests.