'Oblivion' star Tom Cruise 
would pay to go into space

The 50-year-old star is interested in Virgin Galactic's planned commercial space missions - where ordinary people can pay $200,000 to fly outside of the earth's atmosphere - as he always thought intergalactic travel would be more commonplace by now.

Speaking about the space flights, he said: "Who wouldn't want to do something like that?

"I'm going to let a couple of other people test it out first but it would be great. I was always hoping when I was a kid that we would be travelling to different planets by now."

Tom - who plays one of the last men alive after earth is almost destroyed by an alien battle in his new film, 'Oblivion' - is also open to the existence of aliens.

He added: "I don't think you can actually count it out. It might be a little arrogant to think we were the only ones in all the galaxies throughout the universe - but I've never met one."

Tom will be in good company if he does book himself aboard one of Virgin Galactic's space flights. 'Two and a Half Men' star Ashton Kutcher has been confirmed to take part, and others who have expressed an interest include Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Katy Perry and scientist Steven Hawking.

The first ever two-hour flight will see British billionaire Richard Branson - who set up the project - fly into space with his family. So far over 500 people have been confirmed  for flights.