Want to fly into space and feel the sensation of floating without the disturbance of gravity? This is an opportunity for those of you who have deep pockets because Virgin Galactic has re-opened ticket sales for space travel.
Ticket sales are temporarily open starting February 16, 2022. But you have to prepare a fairly deep pocket because the ticket price is set at USD 450,000 with a deposit of USD 150,000.
The fantastic ticket price does not only provide the experience of flying into space. Virgin Galactic promises ticket buyers will get top-class accommodation and service at Spaceport America, New Mexico, which is their launch location.
As of November 2021, Virgin Galactic already has 700 customers lining up to fly into space. At that time they limited the number of customers to only 1,000 people, so it looks like there are only 300 seats left.
Virgin Galactic will start flying space tourists into space at the end of 2022. It is not known when they will close this period of ticket sales.
"We plan to have our first 1,000 customers at the start of our commercial service later this year, providing a very strong foundation as we begin regular operations and scale up our fleet," said Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier in a statement. 16/2/2022).
Virgin Galactic relies on a spaceship called VSS Unity which is carried by a carrier plane called VMS Eve. Once the duo reaches an altitude of 15,000 meters, the VMS Unity will disengage and fly to sub-orbital altitude using its own engines.
VSS Unity can carry six passengers and two pilots in one flight. They can feel floating in space for a few minutes and see the curvature of the Earth from above, before returning to land.
This spacecraft once carried Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson to the edge of space on his maiden manned flight in July 2021.
VSS Unity has flown into space four times, but is currently grounded because the VMS Eve aircraft is still under maintenance and repair until mid-2022. Virgin Galactic is also preparing two new aircraft, namely VSS Imagine and VSS Inspire.