John Travolta turned down the chance to go into space on Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space ship - because he can't take the necessary time off to train to be an astronaut.

Plane-fanatic Travolta was approached and asked if he'd like to take a seat on one of Virgin's first space flights, scheduled for next year, but the "Grease" star was forced to decline the tempting offer - because it would cost him too much in lost earnings.

Travolta explains, "I think I would like it. I've been approached several times to go up into the space shuttle and do these other smaller programs (than Virgin).

"But it takes about six months of training to actually do this kind of thing, so I told them, if they could subsidize me, I would do it."

Image © Janet Mayer / PR Photos

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