Kenneth chang
08/06/2021 2:18 PM
Clarín.com
The New York Times International Weekly
Updated 08/06/2021 2:18 PM
If you were hoping to buy a ticket to space on one
of
Richard Branson's
Virgin Galactic
space planes
, you
probably wish you had bought one
seven years ago.
On Thursday, Virgin Galactic announced that it was resuming ticket sales on its flights, which soar more than 50 miles and offer about four minutes of free fall and a view of Earth against the darkness of space.
The price: at least
$ 450,000
per seat.
That's about
$ 200,000 more
than the company charged in 2014 before suspending sales following the crash of its first space plane, the VSS Enterprise, during a test flight.
About 600 people have tickets from the previous round of sales.
And if you haven't made a
$ 1,000
refundable deposit yet
, you'll have to wait even longer.
Virgin Galactic will first make tickets available to the 1,000 people who were able to reserve a place on the waiting list for when ticket sales resumes.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier acknowledged during a call with industry analysts as the company announced its quarterly results that the higher price would mean higher revenue and
please shareholders.
But, he said, space travel continues to "offer such great value that people who experience this journey with us cannot fail to recommend it."
Although the first customers' tickets are now a relative bargain, they have been waiting for years longer than they had anticipated.
Over the years, Branson had repeatedly said that he expected commercial flights to begin shortly.
Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, and originally expected commercial flights to begin in 2008.
But the development of the rocket plane turned out to be much more difficult and slower than anticipated.
Branson finally flew in July as one of
six people
who took part in a test flight.
The next flight is scheduled for the end of September.
It is still a test flight, but it will carry paying customers: the
Italian air force
bought the flight for two of its researchers to carry out experiments.
Next, Virgin Galactic will pause its operations to make improvements to the space plane, dubbed
VSS Unity
, and the carrier plane that takes it off to a height of about 14 kilometers before releasing it for its short flight into space.
In mid-2022, Virgin Galactic plans to conduct
one more test flight
to verify the improvements and then begin commercial operations, Colglazier said.
From there, Virgin Galactic hopes to increase the pace of flights with the entry into service of more
space planes.
Even at such a high price, Colglazier said it expected customers to repeat.
"We believe this experience is so unique and engaging that it will drive repeat experiences with friends and family in multiple spaceports around the world," he said.
Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by
Jeff Bezos
and Virgin Galactic's competitor in the sub-orbital space tourism market, recently began selling tickets on its
New Shepard
spacecraft
, which launches like a rocket rather than an airplane and arrives
a little higher,
more than 99 kilometers.
For its first flight, which carried Bezos, Blue Origin auctioned a seat, for
$ 28 million
, which went to Bezos's space-focused charity,
Club for the Future.
Blue Origin began selling seats to people who participated in the auction, but has not disclosed its current price or how many people have purchased tickets.
c.2021 The New York Times Company
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