Virgin Galactic starts selling space flights for $450,000 per seat

Virgin Galactic has started selling spaceflight tickets again. This was announced during the announcement of the quarterly results. The prices for a space flight start from 450,000 dollars, or the equivalent of 381,000 euros per person.

Virgin Galactic offers this time offering three options for consumers looking to book a flight to space. They can buy a single seat on the VSS Unity spaceplane, but also several seats at the same time or all six seats in the cabin at once. Prices start from $450,000 per seat and flights continue in 2022.

Virgin Galactic gives priority to the Spacefarer Community when selling the tickets, this community was promised to be the first to act as soon as the sale actually started. The company then works through a list of customers who have registered to buy a ticket. Company spokespersons said the list of initial reservations still includes 600 people. Those tickets were already sold for prices between $200,000 and $250,000.

Early last month, Virgin Galactic made its first fully crewed test flight to the edge of space. During this Unity 22 mission, Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and five other company crew members reached an altitude of about 86 kilometers. The flight launched from the Spaceport America facility in New Mexico, with the VSS Unity spaceplane attached to Virgin Galactic’s WhiteKnightTwo aircraft. The Unity 22 mission is Virgin Galactic’s fourth crewed test flight, but the company’s first space mission with a full crew of two pilots and four specialists.

The VSS Unity undocked last month at an altitude of about 15 kilometers and moments later this spacecraft ignited its rocket engine on its way to the edge of space. During the suborbital spaceflight, the two pilots and four passengers experienced weightlessness for about four minutes, after which the spacecraft returned to New Mexico.

VSS Unity