Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Sir Richard Branson poses for the photographers in the window of a replica of the Virgin Galactic. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

British mogul Richard Branson says he and his two children Holly and Sam will be on the first space flight of his Virgin Galactic venture next year.

Branson, the boss of the Virgin business empire, made the revelation Wednesday on Day 3 of the Farnborough Airshow south of London.

Joining Branson at the airshow were 120 other tourists, so-called future astronauts, who have signed up to make the $200,000 two-hour trip into space. Virgin says 529 deposits from potential passengers have been placed for the journey, one more than the total of space travellers since Russia's Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go into space in 1961.

Branson also revealed a plan to launch small satellites into space at a tenth of the current cost.