Virgin Galactic, which sent its prolific founder Richard Branson into space last year, has now reopened Total ticket sales to the general public. $450,000 (approx.) 3,37,95,349). With this, the general public will be able to reserve a spot on upcoming suborbital spaceflight. Tickets will be available for 1,000 customers this year.
Previously, only those who paid a deposit to be on the waiting list could buy new tickets – but now the sale is once again open to all.
During the 90-minute flight, passengers will reach an altitude of more than 50 miles and experience about four minutes of weightlessness in the spacecraft’s cabin, from where they can also observe the Earth’s curvature through 17 windows.
The space tourists will take off in the company’s rocket-powered vehicle, known as SpaceShip to Unity. It will fly to 50,000 feet, where the Unity is released and its engine fires to propel it to the edge of space.
Virgin Galactic’s Joyrides to the edge of space will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The reservation includes several days of training and a space flight preparation program.
Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic seeks to build on the success of a test mission, in which Branson made a high-profile flight in July.
But Virgin hasn’t flown since. In October last year, it announced it was entering a “surge period” to make safety upgrades to its fleet, and pushed back a planned test flight with the Italian Air Force this year.
Its goal of flying its first paying individual customers by the end of 2022 puts it behind its competition in the nascent space tourism sector — Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX — which have already flown commercial passengers.
As of last November, Virgin Galactic said it had sold 700 tickets. The current fare, which includes the $150,000 deposit, is significantly higher than the $200,000- $250,000 paid by some 600 waiting customers from 2005 to 2014.
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