Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic represents a pioneering company in commercial spaceflight, aiming to offer suborbital flights for space tourism. Its significance lies in advancing human access to space, democratizing space travel, and contributing to scientific research through its unique commercial spaceflight services.
Key Takeaways
- Commercial space flights: Virgin Galactic aims to pioneer space tourism, offering commercial space flights in the near future.
- The setbacks: The company faced setbacks but achieved a successful space flight in 2018.
- Tickets price: Tickets are priced at $250,000, targeting wealthy individuals initially.
- SpaceX: SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, is a prominent player in the space tourism industry, known for its innovative and ambitious goals in space exploration.
- Blue Origin: Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, is advancing in the space tourism race with its New Shepard rocket, focusing on suborbital spaceflights for tourists.
- What is Space Tourism?
- What is Virgin Galactic?
- What Does Virgin Space Flight Cost?
- 4 Other Promising Space Tourism Companies
- Book a Space Flight With Virgin Galactic and Other Companies
- Book a Space Hotel and Fly With Virgin Galactic
- Virgin Galactic and the Space Industry
- Virgin Galactic: Following On From the First Space Tourist
Introduction
Virgin Galactic is one of the best-known space tourism companies in the world, and the business aims to offer commercial space travel in the foreseeable future. In this article, you will find out more information about the future of the Virgin space flight and the anticipated cost of boarding a Virgin Galactic spaceship.
What is Space Tourism?
Space tourism is the name used to describe a specific kind of space travel that is performed for recreational or business purposes. It essentially refers to sending private citizens into space, in exchange for money. Space tourists are also sometimes described as private astronauts or commercial astronauts.
To date, only the Russian Space Agency has successfully carried out regular commercial space flights. However, several private companies are aiming to do so in the near future, including Virgin Galactic.
For more information about Space Tourism, you can read the article “Space Tourism: 5 Space Companies That Will Make You An Astronaut”.
What is Virgin Galactic?
Virgin Galactic was founded by Richard Branson in 2004 and forms part of the Virgin Group. It is a space tourism company aiming to provide space flights for tourists in the near future. Virgin Galactic was regarded as the front runner within the ‘space tourism race’, putting one of its space planes in outer space in 2018.
The company headquarters is in Mojave, California, and Virgin Galactic has already sold hundreds of tickets for future flights into space. While early customers are primarily celebrities, scientists, and other extremely wealthy individuals, the long-term goal is for the flights to be affordable for ordinary people too.
Although the company is well-placed to deliver space travel in the near future, it has not been without its issues. Virgin Galactic originally aimed to deliver space flight by 2009, but that was delayed. In 2014, the Virgin Galactic spaceship VSS Enterprise crashed, resulting in the death of its co-pilot, Michael Alsbury.
Following the VSS Enterprise crash, a new Virgin Galactic spaceship, VSS Unity, was introduced as a replacement. It was this spaceship that completed a successful test flight into outer space back in 2018. As a result of the accomplishment, its two pilots earned commercial astronaut status from the United States government.
Video: Virgin Galactic In Space For The Second Time
Video: Richard Branson on Virgin Galactic’s Space Flight
What Does Virgin Space Flight Cost?
When Virgin Galactic first started selling tickets for space flights, the price was listed as $200,000, or around £150,000. However, this price was subsequently increased and the cost of a ticket for a Virgin space flight currently stands at $250,000, or approximately £175,000.
This sizeable price tag has meant that Virgin space flights are out of most people’s price range, and celebrities and rich entrepreneurs dominate early waiting lists. Nevertheless, Richard Branson desires to decrease the price to around $40,000, or £30,000, within 10 years of the first flights.
4 Other Promising Space Tourism Companies
Several other companies are competing with Virgin Galactic to make space tourism a reality in the near future. Of these space tourism companies, four stand out as being particularly promising:
1. SpaceX
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is one of the best-known companies targeting space tourism, and their ambitions go beyond what Virgin Galactic are proposing. Indeed, SpaceX are hoping to offer space tourism beyond earth orbit, with trips to the moon and back being a short-term objective and trips to Mars being the longer-term goal. You can read more detailed information about SpaceX in the article “SpaceX Information: Rockets, Spacecrafts and Spaceflights”.
2. Blue Origin
Blue Origin is the competitor to Virgin Galactic when it comes to short-term, sub-orbital space tourism. The American company, founded by Amazon President Jeff Bezos, has designed a space vehicle called New Shepard, and is reportedly going to offer commercial space travel for similar prices to what Virgin Galactic is charging. More detailed information about Blue Origin, you can read in the article “Blue Origin: Information About Blue Origin Space Flights”.
3. Orion Span
Founded by Frank Bunger, Orion Span is an aerospace company based in California. It has extremely ambitious goals for its space tourism offering, including establishing the Aurora Space Station in low earth orbit. This will eventually function as a commercial space hotel where customers can stay. You can read more detailed information about Origin Span in the article “Orion Span: Information About Orion Span Space Hotel”.
4. Boeing
Finally, Boeing has also made in-roads into the space tourism industry through an agreement with NASA. The agreement centers around Boeing creating a spacecraft called the CST-100 Starliner, intended to transport people to space stations. As part of the deal, Boeing secured the right to sell a small number of seats to tourists.
Book a Space Flight With Virgin Galactic and Other Companies
Virgin Galactic is aiming to become the first private organization to put paying customers into space. It is also one of the few companies already selling commercial space flight tickets. So what is the process like if you want to join those already on the waiting list?
In the article “Space Flight: How to Book a Ticket into Space”, we offer more information about the various space tourism offerings that have been put forward and explain how to book your ticket into space.
Book a Space Hotel and Fly With Virgin Galactic
The ambition of Virgin Galactic to sell commercial space flights opens up the possibility that its spacecraft could be used as a mode of transport to get from A to B regularly. This could prove essential in the coming years, as tourists begin to experience space hotels and accommodation for the first time.
Read “Space Hotel: How to Book a Hotel in Space” to learn more about the fast-approaching reality of space-based accommodation and to find out exactly what you need to do to make a reservation in a space hotel.
Virgin Galactic and the Space Industry
Virgin Galactic is one of the key players in the space tourism industry and one of the fastest-growing businesses in the space industry. For those interested in Virgin Galactic space flights, it can be beneficial to learn more about the wider industry, the rival companies, and those who may collaborate with Virgin too.
For a more comprehensive look at the space industry, its progression through time, and the main companies operating in its various sub-sectors, read “Space Industry: The No. 1 Guide into Space!”
Virgin Galactic: Following On From the First Space Tourist
The ideas proposed by Virgin Galactic for space tourism may give you the sense of entering a whole new age for travel. Yet, it is worth noting that the first space tourist, Dennis Tito, traveled into space for eight days in 2001, after paying the Russian Space Agency to take him to the International Space Station.
To learn more about Dennis Tito’s life-changing trip into space and the story behind him becoming the first recognized space tourist, read “Space Tourist: Who Was the First Tourist in Space?”
Virgin Galactic is widely regarded as the front-runner when offering space tourism services in the years ahead. The company has already successfully put its space plane into outer space. Nevertheless, the business does also face competition from the likes of SpaceX and Blue Origin.
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