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The impending space trip of the 90-year-old godfather of the green movement James Lovelock, interviewed by Oliver Morton of the . But just how bad is space flight for planet Earth?

, the self-appointed 'world's first spaceline', will be making an astronaut of Lovelock, and to look at their website you could be forgiven for thinking that theirs is a truly intergalactic carbon footprint:

'The spaceship hitches a ride up to around 50,000 feet attached to a specially designed carrier aircraft, 'the mothership'. Once at 50,000 feet, the spaceship is released from the mothership and ignites its hybrid rocket. The spaceship then begins a climb from 50,000 feet to over 360,000 feet. This climb takes about 90 seconds and will reach a speed of just over 3 times the speed of sound.'

Lovelock will apparently produce fewer greenhouse gases travelling into space than the average person emits on a return business-class flight from London to New York. (Two tonnes of carbon, to be precise.)

In a bid to offset carbon criticism, Virgin Galactic is looking at biofuel alternatives. And thanks to a deal with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, .'

Of course, if we all start doing it (and Virgin Galactic does plan to launch two flights a day at cut-price by 2011) that's another matter. But Lovelock thinks we'll all be too busy 'surviving' by the end of the century to have the time or the energy to take space trips.

Until then, best to limit the moon-walking to Friday night clubbing, maybe?

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