I'm told that Neil Armstrong and other Apollo astronauts came here in the 1970s at the invitation of a famous racehorse trainer, but generally you can go about your business without bumping into anyone who has seen the earth from space.

That may change in the next few years as the Island's space commerce sector expands.

Last weekend two experienced cosmonauts and an astronaut were at King William's College with the Excalibur Almaz company which aims to begin privately-funded space missions by 2013.

Dr Leroy Chiao is a veteran of three Shuttle missions and one Soyuz mission and 36 hours of spacewalks under his belt.

With him was Colonel Valery Tokarev, a Russian Air Force test pilot and a test cosmonaut at the Yuri. A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. He is a Hero of the Russian Federation and a veteran of Russian and American space missions.

The third visiting spacemen was Colonel Vladimir Titov who was made a Hero of the Soviet Union for his space exploits.

Colonel Titov talked casually about his career history which began as a test pilot and cosmonaut instructor at Star City, the Soviet Union's equivalent of the Johnson Space Center and the place where cosmonauts were trained and space technology developed.

In 1976 he was selected to become a cosmonaut but his first flight was not until 1983. On December 21,1987 he went into earth orbit and spent a whole year in space, the first man ever to do so.

When I asked about his achievement the Colonel was modest to say the least.

'Yes, it was record,' he said as if talking about passing his driving test.

Colonel Titov flew on the Shuttle Discovery in 1995 and the Shuttle Atlantis in 1997. The latter mission involved docking at the Mir space station and during that mission Colonel Titov also became the first non-American citizen to wear a NASA space suit.

He retired from spaceflights after that mission and, now aged 62, he acts as an adviser to Excalibur Almaz.

The company has bought four reusable capsules built for the Soviet's Almaz programme and although Colonel Titov never flew in the Almaz capsules he was trained to fly in them and has detailed knowledge of the spacecraft.

The space race began as another front in the Cold War but Colonel Titov prefers not to talk of rivalries between the Soviet Union and the USA.

'We are Planet Earth Team,' he says.

Excalibur Almaz is not the only company promising private enterprise space flights to private individuals but it does appear to have leapt ahead of its rivals by purchasing, as Dr Chiao puts it 'heritage hardware'.

Other companies starting from scratch will have to spend years developing and testing spacecraft whereas Excalibur Almaz has four capsules and two space stations that are tried and tested.

The Almaz capsule on show at King William's College has flown in space twice, on one occasion for a month.

The company has also assembled a group of the space industry's most experienced astronauts, cosmonauts and technical experts from Russia and America.

Art Dula, founder of Excalibur Almaz and its chief executive officer, has a bold vision for its future.

'We believe we have a real future in private, commercial, space transportation,' said Mr Dula.

Week-long trips with Excalibur Almaz may cost $35million dollars but it is hoped many places will be taken up by universities and companies so that will open a door to talented individuals who may not have millions in their bank accounts.

'Our company was founded on the premise that space isn't just for a few very rich people to go as tourists,' says Mr Dula.

'It's an opportunity for institutions and individuals to go into space to make use of it for research and for its educational possibilities to build on the space programmes developed by nations and to start bringing wealth into economies rather than just spending tax dollars.

'As the era of private space travel begins we are going to be part of it.'

Mr Dula says private space travel is a logical step and compares the development of space to that of air travel in the 20th Century.

'Historically exploration that's expensive and risky has first been done by governments and then rich individuals come in to develop businesses out of it and that's developed into a regular business that many, many, people can benefit from,' he says.

'In many ways we are following a historical trend. We see this as a normal development of a new business.

'Space is a new resource that's available now and we finally have the technology, because of the investment by governments, to be able to use it commercially.'

A few years ago the idea of space travel becoming almost commonplace may have seemed like a science fiction fantasy.

But within four years we could see it becoming a reality and with a Manx company leading a new space race.

Colonel Titov may talk modestly of his space experiences, but right now he is still part of a very elite club and space explorers such as him are rare individuals.

But over the next decade meeting space travellers will become far more commonplace than it is now.