This past Tuesday, Virgin Galactic, the emerging space tourism company, officially stated that the sale of its trip tickets will now be open to the public starting Wednesday morning. Tickets are currently slated to drop at a staggering $450,000 and require a deposit of $150,000 to secure.
“At Virgin Galactic, we believe that space is transformational,” stated Michael Colglazier, the CEO of Virgin Galactic. “We plan to have our first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year, providing an incredibly strong foundation as we begin regular operations and scale our fleet.”
Virgin Galactic spiked well over 28% in trading, from their previous closing cost of $8.14. The stock has fallen over 85% over the past year due to a previous delay in the release of commercial space flights.
“For much of the last decade, Virgin Galactic has had about 600 reservations for tickets on future flights, with those tickets sold largely between $200,000 and $250,000 each,” CNBC reported. “In August, the company opened ticket sales at the $450,000 price to those who had expressed interest. It had sold about 100 additional tickets as of November.”
“The spaceflight itself is a 90-minute journey including a signature air launch and Mach-3 boost to space,” explained Virgin Galactic. “The spaceship gracefully flips while astronauts enjoy several minutes of out-of-seat weightlessness and breath-taking views of Earth from the spaceship’s 17 windows.”
“Upon return from this transformational experience, astronauts will begin a meaningful journey to create a positive impact with the perspective that can only come from seeing our beautiful planet from space,” added the company.
In the first few days of the billionaire “space race,” Virgin Galactic stated in July of 2021 that it would be carrying out its first full crew test flights into space scant few days prior before Jeff Bezos, with Amazon, was set to do his own test flights.
“Virgin Galactic today announced that the flight window for the next rocket-powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity opens July 11, pending weather and technical checks,” stated the company in a press release. “The ‘Unity 22’ mission will be the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity and the Company’s fourth crewed spaceflight. It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including the Company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, who will be testing the private astronaut experience.”
“I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth,” Branson stated in a clip from space as part of the successful test flights this past year.
“We’re here to make space more accessible to all,” he stated. “Welcome to the dawn of a new space age.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, there it is. More than half a century since the world rejoiced when humans first achieved spaceflight, Richard Branson fulfills his dream of experiencing space travel,” claimed Stephen Colbert, the host of the coverage on Virgin’s website.
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