Digital consultancy Conchango, which specialises in e-tail projects and works on the Virgin Atlantic airline business, is at the heart of a programme to promote the venture, which currently only consists of PR efforts and a non-transactional web site, virgingalactic.com.
However, as well as offering detailed information and news of the project's progress, the site is being used to help draw up the passenger list for the first flights, which are expected to cost £115,000 per person.
Information supplied in an email update sign-up form is helping Conchango to identify genuine candidates and asks whether people would be interested in paying a deposit on their future flight 'when we're ready for you to do so?'. The company hopes to start taking deposits early next year.
The web site is also likely to form a key part of the brand's efforts to offer 'the ultimate experience' to its customers; for example, by allowing travellers to view videos of their journey.
Paul Dawson, Conchango's head of interactive media, said: "Given the site's global audience, it will be crucial in managing the experience.
Whether before or after, it will help us to manage the customer relationship.
If we have video or audio content, the web is the perfect channel for that.
"It is possible that the site will carry a record of each passenger's individual journey."
Dawson said the site recorded 6,500 expressions of interest from people in the first week, 90 per cent of whom said they were serious about taking a flight into space.
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