[ad_1]
Virgin Galactic said it will open on sale for spaceflight tickets starting at $ 450,000 a seat on Thursday, weeks after the company’s billionaire founder Richard Branson took a high-profile flight to the edge from space.
The space tourism company said on Thursday it was making progress towards launching paid flights next year. It will sell individual seats, packages and entire flights.
Branson soared 55 miles (88 km) above the New Mexico desert aboard a Virgin Galactic rocket plane on July 11 and returned safely in the vehicle’s first full test flight in the space, a symbolic step for a business he started 17 years ago.
“What a day… what a day, what a day, what a day,” Branson said after landing on the tarmac. “I have dreamed of this moment since I was a child, but nothing can prepare you for the view from space.”
In June, Virgin Galactic received approval from the US aviation safety regulator to transport people into space.
Sales will first open to the company’s large list of “early hand lifters”, he said. The company said it will offer three mainstream offerings: a single seat, a multi-seat package, and a full buyout.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos staged his own rival rocket flight just days after Branson, ushering in a new era in space tourism fueled by competition between billionaires. Elon Musk’s SpaceX has already become a key partner of the US space agency Nasa.
Virgin Galactic’s next space flight is scheduled for late September in New Mexico with the Italian Air Force.
Virgin Galactic announced the deals, reporting Thursday that it lost $ 94 million in the second quarter due to soaring SG&A costs. The company had sales of $ 571,000, barely enough to cover a seat on a future flight.
[ad_2]
Source link