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.
See also: How to Follow Social Good Summit Online
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.

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.
 
BONUS: 10 Empowering Apps for Social Good
"Don't take for granted that people care."
"Citizens have the capacity, as they did with Darfur, to put an issue on the map."
"If you can't find what's unique people aren't going to listen."
"Social media is changing the world, and we're all here witnessing it."
"Young people want to be involved and really want to have their voice heard."
"Young people need to be asked what matters, not told what matters."
"We all have different inspirations, but one goal: a better world."
"The world we want is an enormous responsibility."
"There are things that people can do in the world -- sometimes as simple as sending a tweet of support."
"Millenials don't just want to read the news anymore. They want to know what they can do about it."
Image: Wikimedia Commons