Land Rover heads to space with Virgin Galactic

NEW YORK -- Land Rover is famous as the luxury brand of vehicles that can go over virtually any terrain on earth. Now Land Rover is going to the edge of space.

Land Rover has signed a marketing deal with Richard Branson's space tourism outfit, Virgin Galactic.

The partnership was announced Monday night aboard the retired U.S aircraft carrier Intrepid, now the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. A mock-up of Virgin Galactic's spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, was on the flight deck. Details of what the partnership were not disclosed, but are likely to include adding to the Land Rover name to the sponsors on the spacecraft's fuselage.

The sponsorship is not without risk. As two space shuttle crashes showed, space travel remains a dicey proposition. Although Virgin Galactic says its going to lengths to make sure that its space tourism is safe, a failure could spell doom not only for the crew, passengers and the program, it could nick Land Rover and its sponsorship as well.

Passengers pay $250,000 for a roundtrip flight to the edge of space. On the website, Virgin Galactic boasts that 530 have signed up so far. The spacecraft is hauled into the sky slung under another aircraft, then its own jet engine takes over.

But Phil Popham, Land Rover's global marketing chief, says "we have total confidence" in the safety of the space venture. And there's a huge upside for Land Rover if it succeeds: "It shows what we're all about" -- British engineering on the cutting edge.

"The complementary nature of the brands is incredibly strong," Popham says.