Shiver Me Timbers wrote:
C Kingsbury wrote:

Give the guy a chance, why don't you! Branson is a reputable
businessman,

You will notice that in the TV interviews he is holding the Burt
Rutan spaceship and white knight in his hand.

So obviously Burt has to be involved somehow and yet there wasn't
a mention or a whiff about that angle.

Burt and the X-Prize were both mentioned in the initial BBC report
I saw of this. They are also mentioned in Auntie's web coverage:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/sci/tech/3693020.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/sci/tech/3693518.stm

Here is the end of the latter report:

"Airlines need to follow regulations and standards, and
there is no reason why this should not be applied to space
travel as well," says Mr Lenorovitz.

"For me, [this venture] is the next logical step to get the
engineers, the diners and the dreamers together with someone
who knows how to market transportation for various classes
of people.

"It's a step towards taking access to space out of the hands
of the chosen few."

I particularly like that bit in the penultimate paragraph which
conjures up visions of portly port-swillers squeezing into such
craft. :-)