Craig Curran Interveiwed by Democrat & Chronicle

May 29, 2013 -Rochester, NY - Inside his airy presidential office at the DePrez Group of Travel Companies off Clinton Avenue South, Craig Curran is surrounded by relics from around the world - tapestries from Asia, handmade knickknacks from Africa — and soon, he may be adding suborbital souvenirs.

Curran is an accredited space travel agent and among 45 agents in Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic program.

“I always make this comparison: a lot of us say we’re related to the pilgrims, but it’s another thing to say my great-great-great-great grandmother was on the Niña the day it landed,” he said. “This is akin to what these folks are getting. We’ve never done this before.”

Curran said several Rochesterians have paid in part or full for spots on the first space trip, though he wouldn’t give exact numbers or names, other than to say “it’s more than one.”

So why would someone want to go to outer space and not a cruise or trip to the Bahamas? Curran believes it’s human nature to dominate and explore.

“Humanity has always had adventurous, cutting-edge early adopters; people who found the new world, settled the Wild West, and came for the Gold Rush,” he said. “This is what we do, and there’s a huge portion of the population still looking for that.”

For Curran, 56, it’s about a little bit more. He believes this is the next evolution of travel, and as a 30-year veteran of the travel industry, it’s important to be on the cusp of fresh destinations.

“I like to tell people if Richard Branson can trust me with his space ship, you can certainly trust me with your trip to Africa,” he said. “This is exciting, new and sexy. I’m just having a blast.”

The space trip costs $200,000, which gives the “commercial astronaut” a training period and 90-minute trip into space — after the research and development phase ends, that is. “This is a milestone-driven event, so we can’t tell you when we’re going to fly,” he said. “We go from milestone to milestone.”

A deposit of $20,000 secures a place in the Virgin Galactic “milestones club,” which holds annual updates for things like the first successful glide flight, or testing of the cantilevered wing system. These events keep antsy passengers at bay while the team at Virgin continues to work toward a departure date.

Curran has done some homework. He can give a brief history of space travel in the new millennium, from the Ansari X Prize, where the first 90 percent reusable vehicle completed a successful flight, to Richard Branson’s commercialization of the industry, which Curran himself is part of today.

He has a small model of the mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo, and the attached SpaceShipTwo, in his office. As he holds it, he demonstrates the process: at a certain height, SpaceShipTwo detaches from the mother ship and carries the commercial astronauts toward a “religious experience” beyond the planet Earth.

VirginGalactic.com describes it this way: “The spaceship can be thought of as an air launched glider with a rocket motor and a couple of extra systems for spaceflight.

Just like any conventional flying machine, it requires aerodynamic forces to provide its stability and control which, clearly, it only has whilst in the atmosphere.”

On April 29, Virgin Galactic had the first successful powered flight of WhiteKnightTwo at its facility near White Sands Missile Testing Base in Las Cruces, New Mexico. All systems were integrated, and the sound barrier was broken.

Craig Curran predicts that his children and grandchildren will be booking affordable vacations to space in their lifetime. He said hotel prototypes, created by Bigelow Industries in California, are already sharing the celestial skies with satellites.

“Some say when Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic, it was like lighting a match to a bonfire — this is lighting a match to a bonfire,” said Curran. “We have no idea where this is going to take us, but it will certainly take the human species off the planet.”

For More Information Please Contact:

CRAIG CURRAN , ASA
Galactic Experiences By DePrez, DePrez Travel Bureau, Inc.
585-442-8900 X224