(Image source from: Tourists can plan a holiday to moon by 2043)

If space companies like Virgin Galactic manage to actualize their aspirations in the next 30 years or so, then a trip around the Moon could be a reality soon.

Richard Branson and his children are all set to take a quick space trip in his company's spaceship on its first commercial flight currently due on 2014.

However, the company's CEO George Whitesides has revealed that their space ambitions extended beyond sub-orbital flights for those first customers.

"If we can make significant progress on the challenge of reusable space access then I think that opens up all kinds of opportunities in the future," he said.

"One of the directions that might open up is high-speed point-to-point travel on Earth -- so that you could go from London to Singapore in an hour or go from London to Los Angeles in a couple of hours.

"We may be able to open up the opportunity for habitats in low Earth orbit, we could make it more affordable to do longer term flights -- even trips around the Moon. I think he [Branson] has high aspirations for a lot of these different activities."

For the moment, Whitesides said the company is focused on completing the test flight program in preparation for the passenger flights that he said Virgin Galactic aims to run on a weekly basis once the service is established.

AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury