This is the new Virgin Galactic spacecraft 0:55
(CNN Business) -
Virgin Galactic announced the reopening of ticket sales for the first time in years, offering anyone who can afford it the chance to reserve a seat on the company's rocket-powered suborbital space plane for an amount of US $ 450,000, which represents a significant increase in price compared to the previous cost of the tickets.
The news comes after Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson took a supersonic ride aboard the space plane after more than a decade vowing to be among the first to test the technology, and the company now says it is ready to start the tests. business operations in 2022.
Virgin Galactic says it will have three offers: single-seat reservations (starting at $ 450,000), multi-seat reservations for families and friends, and an option to purchase all six seats on a given flight for a "modest premium. "CEO Michael Colglazier told investors during an earnings call Thursday.
The seats for "microgravity research and professional astronaut training" will be priced at $ 600,000 each, he said.
The tickets will be offered first to a list of people who have joined the so-called "Spacefarer Community" (community of astronauts) through a deposit of US $ 1,000 in recent months.
Branson opens new era of tourist space travel 4:05
According to Aleanna Crane, vice president of communications for Virgin Galactic, about 1,000 people have deposited the money in cash.
Virgin Galactic also previously announced that it would raffle two seats on the SpaceShipTwo among people who make donations to Space For Humanity, a non-profit organization with the stated goal of helping "democratize space."
The company revealed Thursday during an investor call that more than 125,000 people from 190 countries have made donations.
However, people who choose to put up the $ 450,000 for a seat may have to wait a long time for their turn to come.
More than 600 people, who bought tickets for between $ 200,000 and $ 250,000 when Virgin Galactic sold its first batch of tickets nearly a decade ago, are already on the waiting list for their chance to travel to the edge of space.
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The company has taken much longer than anticipated to complete the development and testing program for the SpaceShipTwo, as the company's space plane is called.
In particular, an accident that occurred in 2014 during a test flight resulted in the death of one of the company's co-pilots.
Space tourism: the differences between Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX flights
Virgin Galactic has since revamped the plane's design, partnered with a new manufacturing company, and tested a new SpaceShipTwo on four successful flights that reached the edge of space, including the Branson one, which took off last month.
The news that the company reopens ticket sales came in conjunction with the company's quarterly financial report, which revealed a net loss of more than $ 94 million.
Virgin Galactic has been in the red every quarter since it went public in 2019, although executives hope to turn it around when it moves from its testing program to normal operations next year.
SpaceShipTwo will offer customers a total experience of one hour, including a few minutes above what the US government considers the limit of space.
Customers will travel at an altitude of 12,000 to 15,000 meters while the space plane is attached to a huge winged mothership.
After a half-hour lap, the SpaceShipTwo disengages itself from the mothership, fires its rocket engine, and soars straight up as it roars at three times the speed of sound and reaches more than 50 miles above the Earth's surface.
Passengers will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and views of the Earth before the plane descends back onto an airstrip.
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