The American aerospace company Virgin Galactic announced that it will restore the sale of tickets for space flights at a price of $450,000 from February 16. A deposit of $150,000 is required to book tourist places. By the beginning of commercial service at the end of this year, the company intends to attract 1,000 clients.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier says space tourism will create the basis for regular operations and fleet expansion.
The company promises that for $450,000, the client will receive a 90-minute journey into space on a Mach 3 aircraft. The crew will be presented with the opportunity to be in zero gravity and observe the Earth through 17 windows. Within a few days, future astronauts will be trained. During the flight, customers will receive an Under Armor spacesuit. They will also be able to apply for membership in the Future Astronaut community.
The flight will launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
For comparison, SpaceX offers to pay $55 million for a ten-day orbital space flight. Blue Origin is Virgin Galactic's main competitor in this area, but Jeff Bezos's company has not yet named the final price for a suborbital flight.
Virgin Galactic planned to launch public and commercial research flights into space last year, but due to a number of technical and legal problems, launches were postponed to 2022. As of the end of last year, the company sold 100 tickets at a price of $450,000, and about 700 people made pre-orders.
Against the background of the announcement of the resumption of sales of tickets for suborbital flights, the share price of Virgin Galactic rose by 10%. Over the past year, the company's securities have fallen in price by 85% due to a delay in the start of commercial flights.
This week it became known that one of the first space tourists under the Virgin Galactic program will be a 19-year-old Pakistani-Canadian student. Her parents purchased a flight ticket for $250,000. The girl will become the first space tourist to wear a hijab.
Last summer, Virgin Galactic announced a drawing of two tickets for a tourist flight into space. In November, the company announced the winner, who is a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda. It was necessary to pay $10 to participate in the lottery.
Last September, the Federal Aviation Administration banned Virgin Galactic from flying its Unity 23 spacecraft as the regulator was investigating a July 11, 2021 tourist flight. The ship changed its flight path, which could have led to an emergency landing.
A few days after the ban, the company reported that a manufacturing defect had been identified during the preparation of the Unity flight. At the end of September, management allowed Virgin Galactic to resume flights, obliging the company to change the rules of communication.
bbabo.Net