Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson's space tourism company, will re-open ticket sales tomorrow, just in time for the first commercial space flights later this year. On a first-come, first-served basis, Virgin Galactic will sell tickets for $450,000 each, with a $150,000 deposit to ensure a slot in line to fly to space.
Before the end of the year, Spaceport America, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, expects to transport its first paying clients to space. Richard Branson, the company's flamboyant creator, traveled to space last year as part of a test flight to demonstrate its VSS Unity, a horizontal take-off space aircraft, and had intended to begin commercial operations in the first quarter of this year.
Virgin Galactic Opens Limited Opportunity For Future Spaceflight
Commercial space missions were further postponed with the announcement that it was entering an enhancement period to make safety improvements to its fleet and a scheduled test flight with Italy's Air Force being pushed back. There are presently 700 "Future Astronauts" on a waiting list to fly up to 50 miles above the surface of the Earth, some of whom have been waiting for more than a decade for this opportunity.
Since its inception in 2004, Virgin Galactic has used a two-stage launch method, which includes a mothership that transports the spacecraft to a height of 50,000 feet before separating and firing rocket boosters to lift it to a height of over 50 miles above the Earth's surface.
According to Daily Mail, the company barely won the "billionaire space founders" competition by launching Richard into space in July, just days before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin New Shepherd rocket took off. After that crewed test trip, Blue Origin has performed two additional flights with paying passengers on board, as well as celebrities like William Shatner, but Virgin Galactic hasn't flown since.
In the budding space tourism industry, its goal of flying its first paying individual clients by the end of 2022 puts it behind the competition. Even though Blue Origin's suborbital rockets have already flown three crewed flights with clients and guests, the cost is anticipated to be far higher than Virgin Galactic's $450,000 for 10 minutes of weightlessness.
Virgin Galactic's Share Prices Increased to 30%
Unlike publicly listed Virgin Galactic, which is mandated to be more open, privately held Blue Origin and SpaceX have not released their specific ticket pricing. While the actual cost of a SpaceX ticket is undisclosed, it was reported that each of three gentlemen paid $55 million for a flight slated for March, which included an eight-day stay on the International Space Station.
The current price of $450,000 includes a $150,000 deposit and is significantly more than the $200,000-$250,000 paid by buyers who bought tickets as part of the initial release from 2005 to 2014. They'll launch in VMS Eve, a carrier aircraft that takes off horizontally, climbs to a high altitude, and then drops a rocket-powered spaceplane that soars into space at Mach-3 before returning to Earth.
Virgin Galactic's 90-minute trip takes out from New Mexico's Spaceport America and boasts luxurious lodgings during the training days leading up to departure. Rather than going through an orbital voyage like visitors to the International Space Station, the spaceship approaches the edge of space. It equates to several minutes of weightlessness outside of the seat throughout the ride for Virgin Galactic passengers, as per CNET.
Virgin Galactic's stock price has risen to over $10.5, a 30% increase since the business announced that ticket sales had resumed. After the firm stated that it would postpone the launch of its commercial space tourism service until the fourth quarter of 2022, the company's stock price fell by 85%.
As a result of a longer maintenance time for its spacecraft VSS Unity and carrier plane VMS Eve, Virgin Galactic announced in October 2021 that it would not be completing any spaceflights this year. A "refurbishment campaign" for its spacecraft and aircraft carriers will begin in October 2021 and will last eight to ten months, ending between June and August 2022, according to the corporation, Republic World reported.
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