Virgin Galactic starts ticket booking for space travel, fares Rs 3.5 crore.

The year 2021 has been significant for space tourism. Billionaires like Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos started space tourism by traveling in the spacecraft of their respective space companies. Tickets were also booked for the space trip. 

 In the new year, Richard Branson’s company Virgin Galactic has once again started booking tickets for those who want to travel to space. Its cost is around 3.5 crores. If your application is approved, you will have to deposit Rs 1.12 crore in advance, of which Rs 18 lakh is non-refundable. 

The commercial flight will start by the end of 2022. 

As of November 2021, Virgin Galactic had close to 700 customers in its pool. The company plans to start its commercial flights by the end of 2022. Till then, she wants to collect at least 1000 customer taxes. 

 At present, Virgin Galactic has only one spacecraft. The company is working on two more space planes – VSS Imagine and VSS Inspire. Test flights of VSS Imagine are expected to begin this year, while VSS Inspire is still under construction. 

The total duration of the space trip 90 minutes. 

For this space trip, Virgin Galactic will use its spaceplane VSS Unity. VSS Unity will be carried to an altitude of 50,000 feet by the carrier aircraft VMS Eve. After this, VSS Unity will be launched to space from VMS Eve. 

VSS Unity has a capacity of six passengers and two pilots. The total duration of this space trip is 90 minutes. People inside the space plane will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and even see the Earth from space. 

Other companies are also in the race for space tourism. 

Branson isn’t the only billionaire offering space trips. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos also owns the space company Blue Origin. He flew into space last year from his company’s spacecraft. 

Virgin is also facing competition from companies like Space Perspectives, which will carry up to 8 people in a hydrogen-filled balloon. It will be a 6-hour flight, but it rises only 20 miles above Earth, well below the Karman line.

Published By: Jaspreet Singh

Edited By: Kritika Kashyap