Double the numbers of space companies are expected compared to 2010’s show, with attention on the European debut appearance of Virgin Galactic’s tourist spacecraft SpaceShip2 — albeit in (full-scale) mocked-up form.

Virgin Galactic’s billionaire owner, Sir Richard Branson, hopes to fly tourists on SpaceShip2 by 2013, and flights can be pre-purchased for $200,000. Branson will give a press conference at Farnborough on Wednesday at which he is expected to announce changes to SpaceShip2’s design, plus a restart of Virgin Galactic Cargo, his project to launch small satellites commercially.

By CNBC.com's Katy Barnato

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