Commercial spaceline Virgin Galactic is offering wealthy tourists a chance to fly in space once again.
The company announced on Tuesday that it was temporarily reopening its waiting list for customers to purchase a chance to experience zero Gs in the atmosphere for a few minutes. Tickets currently cost $450,000 and require a $150,000 seat deposit.
“At Virgin Galactic, we believe that space is transformational,” said Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier in a press statement. “We plan to have our first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year, providing an incredibly strong foundation as we begin regular operations and scale our fleet.”
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Each Virgin Galactic flight launches from New Mexico, lasts for 90 minutes, and will flip upside down while offering the passengers “several minutes of out-of-seat weightlessness and breath-taking views of Earth from the spaceship’s 17 windows.” Each flight will occur on a space plane called the VSS Unity, which lifts off under the wings of a carrier aircraft called VMS Eve. Once the two aircraft hit the 50,000 feet mark, the Unity unlocks and flies to suborbital space, reported Space.com.
The VSS Unity has only flown to suborbital space four times as of February 2022. It can hold up to six passengers and two pilots at one time.
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Virgin Galactic is working on expanding its fleet of space planes to compete with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which currently has three suborbital flights under its belt.
Virgin Galactic began flights in the summer of 2021, sending its founder Richard Branson into space in July 2021. About 700 people have reserved their tickets as of November 2021.
