Branson offers space trip to McFly

Richard Branson has told boyband McFly that he wants to send them into space.

The Virgin executive explained that he is offering space trips to individuals from 2009 and wants the singers to be among the first to go into orbit.

"McFly are lovely guys," Branson told The Mirror at the launch of Virgin Media this week. "I'm totally up for it."

The group's drummer Harry Judd added: "We'd have to go to Nasa in America for a three-day course to become proper astronauts."