Virgin Galactic has sold about 100 tickets to interested space tourists. Since the company’s founder Richard Branson flew into space last summer, the company has enjoyed an unprecedented interest in space tourism. The first commercial space flights are expected to begin by the end of 2022, the company said, quoted by AFP.
The current price on the spot in the spacecraft is $ 450,000 on the spot – much more expensive than the $ 200,000-250,000 paid by about 600 customers from 2005 to 2014.
In total, the company has already sold 700 tickets. “We are entering a period of improving the space fleet with a clear vision to increase the durability, reliability and predictability of our vehicles in preparation for commercial flights next year,” said CEO Michael Kolglaser.
“The demand for space travel is very high and we are selling seats much faster than expected,” added Kolglaser.
Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic seeks to profit from space tourism. Last July, Branson was a few days ahead of Blue Origin owner Jeff Bezos in their billionaire space race. Since then, however, the company, which operates flights from the New Mexico desert, has faced setbacks. The company was criticized in September after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found that the July flight deviated from its designated airspace and Virgin Galactic did not report the “accident.”
In October, Virgin said she was postponing a mission with members of the Italian Air Force for several months after laboratory tests showed that some of the materials used in her vehicles were below the required strength requirements. The company is currently in the process of improving its vehicles.
Unlike Blue Origin and SpaceX – its main competitors in the nascent space tourism sector – Virgin Galactic has a massive rocket carrier that takes off horizontally, gains great altitude, and releases a rocket-powered space capsule, which then ascends into space. .
Tickets for Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket, which can spend about 10 minutes in space and return, are unknown, but are likely to be significantly higher. An online auction for first place sold for $ 28 million, but the winner postponed his flight.
The seats aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, which launches on top of a huge Falcon 9 rocket and is also NASA-certified to transport astronauts to the International Space Station, are likely to cost tens of millions of dollars.
In September, Elon Musk’s company spent four private tourists on a three-day orbital mission sponsored by online payments billionaire Jared Isaacman.
