British contest winner is cleared for a £10m journey into space

But a British data analyst Ian Anderson, 32, will soon join the ranks of astronauts and multi-millionaire businessmen after winning a competition to fly 62 miles above the Earth.

He was asked to choose the "best invention of all time" to gain a place aboard the pioneering Xerus rocket plane. He selected radio.

Until now, only five private individuals have flown into space, with the Russian space programme providing transport.

The first fee-paying space tourist was American businessman Dennis Tito in 2001, who paid just over £10million for a week-long trip on a Russian spacecraft. Mr Anderson will be transported on the U.S.-based Xerus, which has not yet flown.

It should be ready by 2009 when the trip is scheduled to take place.

The plane, being developed by the Californian rocket company XCOR Aerospace in conjunction with space travel concern Space Adventures, is designed solely for such tourist trips. Looking like a miniature space shuttle, it will carry one pilot and one passenger.

Jeremy Webb, editor of New Scientist magazine which organised the competition with car maker Audi, said: "Mr Anderson was simply the best. He gave a justification for radio that goes way beyond what we normally associate with it.

"Everything from medical scanners to mobile phones relies on radio; during the last war it gave us radar and afterwards it opened a new window on the universe with radio astronomy. It was the best of a very good bunch."

Mr Anderson, a married man from Rugeley, Staffordshire, beat 2,500 others to win the prize.

Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company is due to launch regular space flights in 2009.