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Branson Completes Virgin Galactic Flight, Aiming to Open Up Space Tourism

The successful trip was the first in a series to the edge of space and beyond by billionaire entrepreneurs that seek to make human spaceflight more routine.

Richard Branson Launches Into Space on Virgin Galactic Flight

The 70-year-old british billionaire and crew members of virgin galactic launched the commercial space plane unity from new mexico, reached the edge of space and landed safely back at the spaceport on sunday..

[crowd cheers] We are armed for release. Twenty seconds. Five, three, two, one. Release, release, release. Clean release. Ignition. Good rocket motor burn. There’s Mach 1 trimming now. Trim complete. Unity is pointed directly up. And that is a full duration burn, folks. We are headed to space. “To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream, looking up to the stars. Now, I’m an adult in a spaceship, with lots of other wonderful adults looking down to our beautiful, beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers, if we can do this, just imagine what you can do. Aye!” ”Whew! Come on out, Richard.” They just had the ride of their lives. We are so excited for them to land and party the rest of the day like astronauts. All right, we have three landing gear down and locked. Over the threshold. Main gear touchdown. Can see Sir already celebrating inside there. Nose gear touchdown.

By Kenneth Chang

SPACEPORT AMERICA, N.M. — Soaring more than 50 miles into the hot, glaringly bright skies above New Mexico, Richard Branson at last fulfilled a dream that took decades to realize: He can now call himself an astronaut.

On Sunday morning, a small rocket plane operated by Virgin Galactic, which Mr. Branson founded in 2004, carried him and five other people to the edge of space and back.

More than an hour later, Mr. Branson took the stage to celebrate. “The whole thing was magical,” he said.

Later, during a news conference, Mr. Branson was still giddy, saying “I don’t know what’s going to come out of my mouth because I feel I’m still in space.”

Mr. Branson’s flight reinforces the hopes of space enthusiasts that routine travel to the final frontier may soon be available to private citizens, not just the professional astronauts of NASA and other space agencies. Another billionaire with his own rocket company — Jeff Bezos , the founder of Amazon — has plans to make a similar jaunt to the edge of space in nine days.

In each case, billionaire entrepreneurs are risking injury or death to fulfill their childhood aspirations — and advance the goal of making human spaceflight unexceptional.

“They’re putting their money where their mouth is, and they’re putting their body where their money is,” said Eric Anderson, chairman of Space Adventures Limited, a company that charters launches to orbit. “That’s impressive, frankly.”

At 8:40 a.m. Mountain time, a carrier aircraft, with the rocket plane, named V.S.S. Unity, tucked underneath, rose off the runway and headed to an altitude of about 45,000 feet. There, Unity was released, and a few moments later, its rocket motor ignited, accelerating the space plane on an upward arc.

Although Unity had made three previous trips to space, this was its first launch that resembled a full commercial flight of the sort that Virgin Galactic has promised to offer the general public, with two pilots — David Mackay and Michael Masucci — and four more crew members including Mr. Branson.

This flight resembled a party for Virgin Galactic and the nascent space tourism business. Guests included Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX; Michelle Lujan Grisham, the governor of New Mexico; and about 60 customers who have paid for future Virgin Galactic flights.

Stephen Colbert of the CBS program “The Late Show” introduced segments of the webcast. After the landing, the R&B singer Khalid performed a new song.

When the fuel was spent, Unity continued to coast upward to an altitude of 53.5 miles. The four people in back unbuckled and experienced about four minutes of floating before returning to their seats.

Mr. Branson was accompanied in the cabin by Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, lead operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research operations.

Mr. Bennett said that he was busy with tasks during the first part of the flight and then he heard Ms. Moses shouting, “Don’t forget to look out the window.”

He did. “It’s very Zen,” Mr. Bennett said of the view of Earth below. “What jumped out at me were the colors and just how far away it looked. It felt like we were just so far up there, and I was just mesmerized.”

Ms. Bandla’s role was to evaluate another market Virgin Galactic is targeting: scientists doing research that takes advantage of minutes of microgravity. She conducted an experiment from the University of Florida which looked at how plants react to the changing conditions — particularly the swings in gravity — during the flight, part of research that could aid growing food on future long-duration space missions.

As the space plane re-entered the atmosphere, the downward pull of gravity resumed. Unity glided to a landing back at the spaceport.

Michael Moses, president of Virgin Galactic, said the flight appeared to go flawlessly. “The ship looks pristine, no issues whatsoever,” Mr. Moses said.

For well over a decade, Mr. Branson, the irreverent 70-year-old British billionaire who runs a galaxy of Virgin companies, has repeatedly said he believed that commercial flights would soon begin. So did the 600 or so customers of Virgin Galactic who have paid $200,000 or more for their tickets to space and are still waiting. So did the taxpayers of New Mexico who paid $220 million to build Spaceport America, a futuristic vision in the middle of the desert, in order to attract Mr. Branson’s company.

After years and years of unmet promises, Virgin Galactic may begin flying the first paying passengers next year after two more test flights. But with tickets costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, this experience will, for now, remain out of financial reach for most people.

Founding a space exploration company was perhaps an unsurprising step for Mr. Branson, who has made a career — and a fortune estimated at $6 billion — building flashy upstart businesses that he promotes with a showman’s flair.

What became his Virgin business empire began with a small record shop in central London in the 1970s before Mr. Branson parlayed it into Virgin Records, the home of acts like the Sex Pistols, Peter Gabriel and more. In 1984, he was a co-founder of what became Virgin Atlantic.

The Virgin Group branched out into a mobile-phone service, a passenger railway and a line of hotels. Not all have performed flawlessly. Two of his airlines filed for insolvency during the pandemic last year, while few today remember his ventures into soft drinks , cosmetics or lingerie .

The spaceflight company was of a piece with Mr. Branson’s penchant for highflying pursuits like skydiving and hot-air ballooning.

Virgin Galactic joined the New York Stock Exchange in 2019 after merging with a publicly traded investment fund, giving it a potent source of new funds to compete with deep-pocket competitors — and publicity, with Mr. Branson marking its trading debut at the exchange in one of the company’s flight suits.

The Virgin Group retains a 24 percent stake in Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic’s space plane is a scaled-up version of SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 captured the $10 million Ansari X Prize as the first reusable crewed spacecraft built by a nongovernmental organization to make it to space twice in two weeks.

Mr. Branson initially predicted commercial flights would begin by 2007. But development of the larger craft, SpaceShipTwo, stretched out.

The first SpaceShipTwo vehicle, V.S.S. Enterprise, crashed during a test flight in 2014, killing one of the pilots . Virgin Galactic was then grounded until Unity was completed a year and a half later.

In 2019, Virgin Galactic came close to another catastrophe when a seal on a rear horizontal stabilizer ruptured because a new thermal protection film had been improperly installed.

The mishap was revealed this year in the book “Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut” by Nicholas Schmidle, a staff writer at The New Yorker. The book quotes Todd Ericson, then the vice president for safety and test at Virgin Galactic, saying, “I don’t know how we didn’t lose the vehicle and kill three people.”

Mr. Bezos’ flight is to take place about 200 miles to the southeast of Spaceport America in Van Horn, Texas, where his rocket company, Blue Origin, launches its New Shepard rocket and capsule.

Although Blue Origin has yet to fly any people on New Shepard, 15 successful uncrewed tests of the fully automated system convinced the company it would be safe to put Mr. Bezos on the first flight with people aboard.

He will be joined by his brother, Mark, and Mary Wallace Funk , an 82-year-old pilot. In the 1960s, she was among a group of women who passed the same rigorous criteria that NASA used for selecting astronauts, but the space agency at the time had no interest in selecting women as astronauts. A fourth unnamed passenger paid $28 million in an auction for one of the seats .

Neither Blue Origin nor Virgin Galactic flights go high enough or fast enough to enter orbit around Earth. Rather, these suborbital flights are more like giant roller coaster rides that allow passengers to float for a few minutes while admiring a view of Earth against the black backdrop of space.

Mr. Bezos’ company emphasized the rivalry with Virgin Galactic for space tourism passengers in a tweet on Friday . Blue Origin highlighted differences between its New Shepard rocket and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo including the fact that New Shepard flies higher, above the altitude of 100 kilometers, or about 62 miles, that is often regarded as the boundary of space. However, the United States Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration set the boundary at 50 miles.

The company also noted the size of the New Shepard capsule’s windows, and called Virgin Galactic’s Unity “a high-altitude plane” in contrast to New Shepard’s rocket.

Mr. Bezos on Sunday congratulated Mr. Branson and his fellow crew on their flight. “Can’t wait to join the club!” he said in an Instagram post .

At the news conference, Mr. Branson said, “It really wasn’t a race.” He added, “We wish Jeff the absolute best.”

Blue Origin has not yet announced a ticket price, and Virgin Galactic’s earlier quoted fare of $250,000 will probably rise. But on Sunday after his trip, Mr. Branson announced a sweepstakes that will give away two seats on a future Virgin Galactic flight .

Virgin Galactic is planning two more tests flight to conduct including one where scientists from the Italian Air Force will undertake science experiments before commencing commercial service.

The era of nonprofessional astronauts regularly heading to orbit may also begin in the coming year. Jared Isaacman , a 38-year-old billionaire, is essentially chartering a rocket and spacecraft from SpaceX for a three-day trip to orbit that is scheduled for September.

In December, Space Adventures has arranged for a Japanese fashion entrepreneur, Yusaku Maezawa , and Yozo Hirano, a production assistant, to launch on a Russian Soyuz rocket on a 12-day mission that will go to the International Space Station.

Another company, Axiom Space in Houston, is arranging a separate trip to the space station that will launch as soon as January.

The orbital trips are too expensive for anyone except the superwealthy — Axiom’s three customers are paying $55 million each — while suborbital flights might be affordable to those who are merely well off.

But how many people are willing to spend as much as some houses cost for a few minutes of space travel?

Carissa Christensen, founder and chief executive of Bryce Space and Technology, an aerospace consulting firm, thinks there will be plenty. “Based on previous ticket sales, surveys and interviews,” she said in an email, “we see strong demand signals for multiple hundreds of passengers a year at current prices, with potential for thousands if prices drop significantly.”

Mr. Anderson of Space Adventures is less certain.

Two decades ago, his company did sell suborbital flights including a ticket to Ms. Funk, who goes by Wally. “ Wally Funk was one of our first customers,” Mr. Anderson said. “That would have been like 1998.”

The ticket price then was $98,000.

At one point, about 200 people signed up, but none of the suborbital rocket companies were able to get their promised spacecraft close to flight. Space Adventures returned the money to Ms. Funk and the others.

Now this unproven suborbital market has whittled down to a battle of billionaires — Mr. Branson and Mr. Bezos.

“If anybody can make money and make the market work for suborbital, it’s Branson and Bezos,” Mr. Anderson said. “They have the reach and the cachet.”

Michael J. de la Merced and Neil Vigdor contributed reporting.

Kenneth Chang has been at The Times since 2000, writing about physics, geology, chemistry, and the planets. Before becoming a science writer, he was a graduate student whose research involved the control of chaos. More about Kenneth Chang

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Virgin Galactic launches 4 space tourists to the edge of space and back

By William Harwood

January 26, 2024 / 4:52 PM EST / CBS News

Virgin Galactic's winged rocketplane carried a two-man crew and four passengers to the edge of space and back Friday, chalking up the company's 11th sub-orbital spaceflight and its sixth commercial mission.

With veteran pilots C.J. Sturckow and Nicola Pecile at the controls, the Unity spacecraft was carried aloft from New Mexico's Spaceport America by Virgin Galactic's twin-fuselage ferry ship Eve, taking off at 12 p.m. EST.

After climbing to an altitude of 44,493 feet, the carrier jet released the spaceplane and, a moment later, the pilots ignited Unity's hybrid rocket motor to kick off a supersonic near-vertical climb out of the lower atmosphere.

It was Virgin's first flight without a company astronaut chaperone on board, and all four seats in Unity's cabin were occupied by paying customers: Robie Vaughn and Neil Kornswiet, both American citizens, Franz Haider of Austria, and Lina Borozdina, who holds joint U.S.-Ukrainian citizenship.

Unity's rocket motor fired for about two minutes, boosting the ship's velocity to nearly three times the speed of sound before shutting down. At that point, the pilots and their passengers were weightless.

The spaceplane continued skyward on a ballistic trajectory, reaching a maximum altitude, or apogee, of 55.2 miles. That's five miles above the altitude recognized by NASA, the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration as the "boundary" between the discernible atmosphere and space.

During about three minutes of weightlessness, as Unity arced over the top of its trajectory, the passengers were able to unstrap, float about the cabin and take in spectacular views of Earth far below, before returning to their seats for the plunge back into the lower atmosphere.

Virgin's spacecraft features unique hinged wings that rotate upward after engine shutdown to slow and stabilize the craft for re-entry. Once back in the lower atmosphere, the wings rotated back into their normal configuration and the pilots guided the ship to touchdown on Spaceport America's 15,000-foot-long runway 56 minutes after takeoff.

Virgin Galactic has now launched 55 passengers and crew on 11 sub-orbital space flights since an initial test flight in December 2018. The passenger list includes company founder Richard Branson.

Blue Origin, owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, also offers sub-orbital spaceflights using a more traditional rocket and crew capsule. The fully automated spacecraft can carry six passengers at a time. Blue Origin has launched 32 space tourists to date, including Bezos, along with multiple unpiloted cargo missions.

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Bill Harwood has been covering the U.S. space program full-time since 1984, first as Cape Canaveral bureau chief for United Press International and now as a consultant for CBS News.

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Dream of going to space? Virgin Galactic just launched commercial flights

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For years, British billionaire Richard Branson vowed that commercial spaceflights with his firm Virgin Galactic were just around the corner.

On Thursday, that hype finally became reality when three Italian researchers boarded the VSS Unity space plane as Virgin Galactic’s first paying passengers and flew about four minutes in suborbital space.

The researchers — Col. Walter Villadei and Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi of the Italian Air Force and Pantaleone Carlucci, an engineer with the National Research Council of Italy — spent their precious minutes in microgravity conducting scientific research on topics including cognitive performance and physiological responses in space.

The carrier aircraft and the attached VSS Unity space plane took off from the Spaceport America launch site around 7:30 a.m. Pacific time near Truth and Consequences, N.M., and climbed to an altitude of about 45,000 feet. By 8:30 a.m., the carrier aircraft had released the space plane, which rocketed to the edge of space.

A livestream of the flight showed the researchers strapped into their seats as they traveled at Mach 2, with one researcher puffing out his breath in visible O’s. At 8:31 a.m., the space plane’s motor cut off and the researchers were free to move around. Villadei was the only researcher to get out of his seat, and he propelled himself to the back of the craft, where he tended to experiments on a stationary rack. The other two researchers stayed in their seats, hurriedly looking at their tablets.

They all took a momentary break to unfurl an Italian flag and give the onboard camera a grin or thumbs-up.

Virgin Galactic will start selling tickets to space — have your $150,000 deposit ready

A 90-minute flight on Virgin Galactic will cost $450,000. Ticket sales open to the general public Wednesday.

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“I was concentrating on my test, my knee board, but I had the opportunity to look out,” said Carlucci, the engineer. “Speechless.”

By 8:35 a.m., everyone was back in their seats. The craft touched down back in New Mexico around 8:42 a.m.

Prior to Thursday’s flight, only Branson and Virgin Galactic employees had flown aboard the space plane . As of last year, the company had received reservations for nearly 800 tickets and collected $103.3 million in deposits and membership fees from “future astronauts,” according to Virgin Galactic’s most recent annual report.

A seat on Virgin Galactic’s space plane now costs $450,000, up from the initial price of $200,000 that early enthusiasts paid.

Thursday’s first commercial flight is a milestone for the company and for the space tourism market as a whole, said Alan Ladwig, a former NASA executive and author of the space travel book “See You in Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight.” But it doesn’t indicate that routine trips to space are just around the corner.

“When you’re in the $450,000 price range for a suborbital flight ... you’re a few years away from a mass market,” he said. “The milestones ahead are when’s the next flight, how often can they get a rhythm and schedule that can be predicted and counted on.”

Thursday’s mission high above the New Mexico desert showcased a part of the space tourism market not often discussed — research flights.

Although space tourism is more commonly associated with wealthy passengers achieving lifelong dreams of spaceflight, companies like Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have also touted suborbital spaceflight as an opportunity for scientists to conduct their own experiments in a microgravity environment.

Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson plans to visit space before Jeff Bezos

Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson is set to be on a SpaceShipTwo Unity test flight as soon as July 11. Jeff Bezos plans to visit space July 20.

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Performing experiments in orbital space isn’t really an option, with the cost and time needed to prepare for intensive spaceflight probably outweighing the benefits. Scientists can also send their experiments to the International Space Station, but they can’t tend to them themselves. Flying on a parabolic, or zero-gravity, plane flight is another option, but passengers experience weightlessness for only 22 seconds at a time.

“There’s nothing in between,” Villadei said. The Virgin Galactic flight “was not only to try the payloads that we developed along with the international research council, but [to] even try how this new platform can really ... provide us a kind of gap filler. What I can see is, it was really beneficial to us.”

The results of the onboard experiments will be analyzed in the next few weeks or months, Carlucci said.

Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Michael Colglazier nodded to the company’s dual revenue streams in a statement released before the flight, noting that the company’s “two dynamic products” are scientific research and private astronaut flights.

However, the flight also comes as extreme or adventure tourism is scrutinized after the implosion of the OceanGate deep-sea exploration submersible Titan , which killed all five people aboard.

Some have likened the minimal regulatory oversight for submersibles to the commercial space industry. Under federal law, the Federal Aviation Administration cannot impose safety standards on commercial craft that carry humans to space, according to Bloomberg .

It’s unclear whether the OceanGate submersible disaster could have an effect on demand for other adventure tourism ventures . Ladwig notes that while tourists sometimes die trekking to Mt. Everest or driving race cars, those incidents haven’t damped public interest or demand for those activities.

“Space and certainly submersibles, they seem to be a little different than that because [they are] such bigger experience[s],” he said. “It doesn’t seem to have the same impact in the public psyche.”

A disaster on the scale of the OceanGate submersible implosion has not happened in the commercial spaceflight industry. But there have been mishaps.

Nearly two years ago, Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft went off course during Branson’s flight to suborbital space. After an FAA investigation into the matter, the company was cleared to return to flight .

In 2014, an earlier version of Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft broke apart in midair during a powered test flight , killing the co-pilot and injuring the pilot.

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Virgin Galactic's first space tourism flight launches today - here's what you need to know

Virgin Galactic is aiming to make these kinds of spaceflights a monthly occurrence, with seats priced between $250,000 (£191,000) and $450,000 (£344,000).

By Tom Acres, technology reporter

Thursday 10 August 2023 08:13, UK

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Virgin Galactic's first space tourism flight launches today, blasting a former Olympian and mother-daughter duo above the Earth.

It follows the company's inaugural commercial trip earlier this summer , when three Italian citizens were taken into low orbit for scientific research experiments.

Thursday's take-off is billed as a recreational endeavour, with some crewmates winning their seats in a prize draw.

Who's on board?

The former Olympian on board is Jon Goodwin, who competed in canoeing at the 1972 Games in Munich.

The 80-year-old, from Newcastle , will be the second person with Parkinson's disease to reach the edge of space.

He said: "I hope this inspires all others facing adversity and shows them that challenges don't have to inhibit or stop them from pursuing their dreams."

Joining him on VSS Unity are Keisha Schahaff, 46, and 18-year-old Anastatia Mayers, who will become the first astronauts - professional or otherwise - from the Caribbean .

They will also be the first mother and daughter to travel on a spaceflight together.

Ms Schahaff is a wellness coach, while her daughter studies philosophy and physics at the University of Aberdeen .

Ms Schahaff said: "I know I'll be changed by my experience.

"I hope I'll be able to share that energy and inspire the people around me - in my role as a life coach, a mother, and ambassador for our beautiful planet."

Of course, the crew won't be heading into space alone.

They'll be joined by pilots CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer, alongside astronaut instructor Beth Moses.

Read more: Why billionaires are drawn to 'extreme tourism'

When and where is the launch happening?

The launch will happen at Spaceport America in New Mexico , with the window for take-off opening at 4pm UK time.

Similarly to how the now-defunct Virgin Orbit carried a rocket skyward from Newquay back in January , it will see VSS Unity attached to a plane.

Once the plane has taken off from the runway and hit release altitude, the spacecraft will be released and use its powerful rocket engine to shoot up to around 50 miles above the Earth.

Those piloting the plane, known as VMS Eve, will not reach space.

The duo, Nicola Pecile and Mike Masucci, will instead head straight back to the runway.

The crew who do carry on into orbit will experience five minutes of weightlessness and some great views, before heading home.

The whole flight will only take around 90 minutes.

Read more: Satellite deliberately crashed in world first International Space Station is 'dangerously dusty' New phone wallpaper? See stunning new image of dying star

How can I watch it?

You can watch a live stream of the launch on the Sky News website, app, and YouTube channel .

If you can't watch it live, you'll be able to catch it later on demand.

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Will there be more flights like this in future?

Virgin Galactic is aiming to carry out monthly private flights, with seats priced between $250,000 (£191,000) and $450,000 (£344,000).

It means the next flight could happen as soon as September.

For anyone without such riches to call upon, they'll have to rely on other opportunities.

Ms Schahaff and her daughter won their seats in a contest to raise funds for Space for Humanity, a non-profit group that aims to send ordinary citizens into space to give them a "grander perspective" on the challenges facing Earth.

Related Topics

• Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic to Launch Space Tourism Flight as Waiting Lists Grow

Jesse Chase-Lubitz , Skift

June 7th, 2024 at 1:51 PM EDT

Virgin Galactic joins Blue Origin and Space Perspective in aspiring to make the final frontier open to all who can afford it. That's good news for travel agencies like RocketBreaks.

Jesse Chase-Lubitz

Virgin Galactic plans to send a handful of paying passengers to the edge of space on June 8 as the space industry continues to grow and diversify.

“So far, there are about 3,000 to 4,000 people on the waiting lists for these trips,” said David Doughty, co-founder of the space travel agency RocketBreaks . His agency has secured contracts with seven tourists looking to launch into orbit and has set a date for one. 

Virgin Galactic’s flight will take off from New Mexico on Saturday and carry three private passengers from California, New York, and Italy. Tuva Cihangir Atasever , a researcher-astronaut from infrastructure company Axiom Space, and two commanders will accompany them.

Virgin Galactic has not released the identities of the private passengers. 

In an email to Skift, the company said, “We don’t consider our mission to take people to space, “tourism.” Those who fly with us become astronauts in what is a very thoughtful, purposeful journey that begins when they purchase a ticket.”

The passengers, whose identities were not disclosed, will enjoy a roughly 90-minute journey to the edge of space that includes a few minutes of zero gravity.

The company’s website states that spaceflight tickets cost $450,000, though it doesn’t disclose what passengers truly paid. On a recent earnings call, executives said the average price per seat on this flight is over $800,000 hope to charge a ticket price of $600,000 . Blue Origin doesn’t publicize its prices, but they have been said to range between $200,000 and over $1 million .

The space tourism industry

Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are known for their shorter suborbital flights, while SpaceX focuses on bringing tourists into orbit and to the International Space Station.

In August 2023, Virgin Galactic brought a health and wellness coach and her 18-year-old daughter who had won a fundraising competition by Space for Humanity, a non-profit that seeks to democratize space travel to space.

BlueOrigin , which is owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, has sent more than two dozen passengers into space. SpaceX , founded by Elon Musk, brought an all-tourist crew back from space in 2021.

The industry is growing and diversifying. One company, called Space Perspective , is offering an even more luxurious experience, with VIP seating, a toilet, Michelin-star catering, and WiFi. Rather than a 90-minute round trip, this experience would last closer to six hours.

A space travel agency

“This is our number one product,” said Doughty. “People don’t necessarily want this fast 15-minute adrenaline field journey. They want a full experience. There are people that are planning to get married and have the first weddings in space.”

The waiting list for Space Perspective is already about 800 names long, according to Doughty. The first flight is scheduled to launch in 2027.

Virgin Galactic plans to retire its current spacecraft after this flight and start developing a new generation of Delta spaceships, which the company hopes will have the capacity to launch up to eight times per month and carry more passengers. Private astronaut flights are expected to resume in 2026. But the company will have to find a way to stay financially viable in the meantime .

The future of space tourism

RocketBreaks sees the industry widening to different types of experiences. “You can really personalize the experience and we help people find the journey they want,” said Doughty. “We could plan anything from a child meeting an astronaut for his birthday, a bucket list trip in your 70s and you don’t like G-Force, something for a premier league footballer who wants to feel the adrenaline.”

The technology is developing rapidly and confidence is slowly building, said Barry Shanks, director at RocketBreaks. “There’s going to be a great deal of marketing going on, so then I think we will see a rise,” he said. 

“In the long term, like 10 years time, we’re looking at doing a trip around the moon that will be no different than flying from London to Australia,” said Shanks of RocketBreaks.

CORRECTION : This article originally said Virgin Galactic’s latest flight on June 8 would be its second with paying passengers. It will be its seventh. We’ve also added this statement: “On its latest earnings call, the company said the average price per seat on this flight was over $800,000.”

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Photo credit: Virgin Galactic's first mission carrying passengers in August, 2023. Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic: space tourism takes off with Branson’s inaugural flight

Professor of Business Studies, Trinity College Dublin

Disclosure statement

Louis Brennan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Trinity College Dublin provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

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With British billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s successful flight to the edge of space, he and his company Virgin Galactic have firmly established themselves in the history books as space tourism pioneers.

While not the first tourist to enter space , 70-year-old Branson is the first to make his journey with a commercial spaceflight company, marking a giant leap for the space tourism industry being championed by some of the world’s most famous billionaires.

Unlike its rivals, Virgin Galactic launched its spacecraft from a carrier craft – not from the ground. Branson and three Virgin Galactic mission specialists travelled along with two pilots in the company’s SpaceShipTwo craft “VSS Unity”, which was carried by a WhiteKnightTwo aircraft to an altitude of 50,000 feet before being launched from the carrier craft. The mothership aircraft, named VMS EVE (after Branson’s late mother), launched the afternoon of July 11, after a short weather-related delay.

VSS Unity then ignited its own rocket, taking it to a height of over 50 miles above Earth. The four passengers experienced weightlessness and observed the curvature of the planet’s surface before reentering the earth’s atmosphere and landing at the company’s spaceport America base in New Mexico.

While SpaceShipTwo did not reach the Kármán line – 62 miles altitude above Earth and often regarded of as the edge of outer space – the Federal Aviation Administration puts the dividing line lower, at 50 miles.

Virgin Galactic’s success has not been an overnight one. Founded in 2004 to provide paying customers a trip into suborbital space, the company has experienced many false dawns over the years with projected dates of flights proving overly optimistic and a major setback involving a fatal accident in 2014 .

The company has made substantial progress in recent years, achieving its first suborbital flight in December 2018. Virgin Galactic became the first commercial spaceflight company to list on the stock market in October 2019. While the stock has been volatile in the meantime, it has rallied by around 50% since securing approval from the US Federal Aviation Authority last month to proceed with passenger flights.

With an eye on the history books, Virgin Galactic immediately announced plans to advance Branson’s spaceflight aboard SpaceShipTwo to July 11, upstaging by nine days his rival billionaire Jeff Bezos’ planned trip into space .

Virgin Galactic plans to start commercial space tourism flights early next year. This is welcome news for the 600 aspiring space tourists who have waited years since making their reservations at a reported price of $250,000 in the late noughties. The company has plans to produce dozens of spacecraft in anticipation of increased passenger demand.

Billionaires blast off

In winning the first round of the space tourism race, Branson has – for now – eclipsed his fellow billionaires, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk, and has scored a major marketing coup. However, both Bezos and Musk have ambitious plans for space tourism, extending in the case of the latter to the moon and even Mars.

Bezos himself is due to launch into space on July 20 – 52 years since the first moon landing – aboard his company Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket. Bezos will be accompanied by his brother Mark Bezos, American aviator Wally Funk who was part of jettisoned programme to send women into space in the 1960s, and a fourth passenger who won the auction for the remaining seat with a winning bid of US$28 million (£20.1 million).

Beyond these initial flights with their billionaire founders aboard, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin will be competing to take paying customers on suborbital flights.

The two companies will also derive revenue from taking science experiments and researchers into space. This will be far less expensive than the more elaborate task of sending experiments and people to the International Space Station. Later this year, Musk’s SpaceX plans to send four passengers on a three-day orbit around the earth, circling it in a Crew Dragon capsule at an altitude of 335 miles.

With the takeoff of space tourism and more generally the business of space, Bezos, Branson and Musk can no longer be dismissed as wealthy boys with toys. They have brought a renewed pioneering spirit and entrepreneurial zeal and intensity to the space sector. In doing so, they have made substantial progress in advancing the frontier of space and space tourism.

They have created cost economies through, for example, their innovative implementation of circular economy principles. For example, SpaceX’s embrace of reusable rockets has drastically reduced costs.

Critically, these flights have been an inspiration to others. Private capital is now flowing into the space sector with its size forecast to increase almost threefold by 2040 to become a US$1 trillion industry (£719 billion).

While the first round of the new space race may have a winner, there are many more rounds to be completed. Given the high risk nature of space travel and space more generally, there will be setbacks as well as successes. Still, while the stakes may be high, the potential rewards are great. Branson’s successful journey marks an important moment in the commercialisation of space.

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• Richard Branson
• Virgin Galactic

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Virgin Galactic to launch Galactic 04 space tourist flight today. Here's what to expect

Virgin Galactic is poised to launch its fourth commercial mission in as many months.

• What time is the launch?
• Can I watch the launch live?
• Who is on the crew?
• How long is the flight?

Update for Oct. 6: Virgin Galactic has announced that Galactic 04 will now take off at 9:40 a.m. MDT (11:40 ET/1540 GMT).

Virgin Galactic is keeping pace with the company's monthly flight cadence, and is targeting Oct. 6 for the launch of their fourth commercial mission, Galactic 04.

Three space tourists are scheduled to launch on a suborbital trajectory aboard Virgin Galactic 's reusable space plane, VSS Unity . Virgin Galactic has not announced a time for Friday's flight, but similar missions that have flown over the last few months have taken place in the morning, with the takeoff of Unity's carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, around 11 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT).

VMS Eve will take off from Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America in New Mexico and will carry Unity and her crew to altitude before releasing the space plane to rocket itself the rest of the way to space.

The VSS Unity spacecraft flies on a suborbital trajectory that allows its passengers several minutes of weightlessness before returning to the runway back at Spaceport America. Though it doesn't reach orbit, Unity will be high enough that passengers will be able to see the curvature of Earth against the dark backdrop of outer space.

Related: Meet the crew of Virgin Galactic's 4th commercial spaceflight

What time is the Galactic-04 suborbital launch?

A Virgin Galactic representative confirmed to Space.com via email that liftoff of VMS Eve will take place at 9:40 a.m. MT (11:40 a.m. or 1540 GMT), with Unity's launch approximately 30 minutes later.

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With Unity secured between the double cockpits of her carrier aircraft, Eve will carry the space plane to an altitude of about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters). Once at altitude, Unity will be released and will ignite its rocket engine to climb the rest of the way to the edge of space.

Originally, Virgin had targeted Oct. 5 for the Galactic 04 flight. However, on Oct. 1, the company wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the launch window was moved back to give their "team an additional day to complete vehicle prep and checks," the post read.

Can I watch Virgin Galactic's Galactic 04 spaceflight?

Nope. Virgin Galactic didn't provide streaming coverage for Galactic 03, and won't be providing live video for Galactic 04 either. During their last mission, updates were only provided via X, and that seems to be the case for Galactic 04 as well. 

"There will not be a livestream, but everyone can follow Virgin Galactic on X/Twitter for the latest updates ahead of flight and on the day of flight," the representative added.

Further mission updates on Virgin Galactic's X account are expected as launch day approaches, and throughout the morning during the Oct. 6 flight.

Launch update: The #Galactic04 spaceflight will now take place on the second day of our flight window – Friday, October 6 to give our team an additional day to complete vehicle prep and checks. We look forward to taking to the skies in a few days! October 1, 2023

Who is riding on the Galactic 04 spaceflight?

In total, six people will fly to space on Galactic 04: Mission commander Kelly Latimer and pilot C.J. Sturckow will be at the helm of VSS Unity. In the cabin, three private passengers will ride alongside Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor.

Photos: The first space tourists

• Latimer was the first woman to serve as a research pilot at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center . She has logged several thousand hours in the cockpit of dozens of different aircraft, and was at the helm of VMS Eve during Virgin Galactic's first commercial spaceflight mission in June.
• Sturckow was a NASA astronaut from 1995 to 2013, during which time he flew four space shuttle missions, including the first shuttle to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) . Galactic 04 will mark Sturckow's eleventh spaceflight.

The private astronauts boarding VSS Unity for Galactic 04 are some of the company's "Founder Astronauts," reserving their seats more than 15 years ago. Designated Virgin Galactic's astronauts 017, 018 and 019, the Galactic 04 crew hail from the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

• Ron Rosano, Virgin Galactic Astronaut 017: Rosano is a space fanatic from Muir Beach, California. He is an astronomy educator who runs multiple websites dedicated to his space ventures and tracking crewed spaceflight , in general. In addition to his ticket for Galactic 04, Rosano has also reserved seats aboard   Blue Origin 's  New Shepard rocket, and  Space Perspective 's stratospheric balloon, according to his  website .
• Trevor Beattie, Virgin Galactic Astronaut 018: Beattie is a long-time British ad executive who's made a name for himself in the media industry, and began marketing Virgin Galactic flights through his company, Beattie McGuinness Bungay, as early as 2006.
• Namira Salim, Virgin Galactic Astronaut 019: Salim founded the nonprofit Space Trust, which advocates for leveraging the growing space sector as a platform for achieving peace on Earth. She is Pakistani, living in Dubai, and is recognized as  Pakistan's first astronaut . A true world-adventurer, Salim is also the first Pakistani to venture to the North and South Poles.

Beth Moses was the first woman to fly aboard Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity spaceplane. She earned her astronaut wings in 2019 and is designated Virgin Galactic Astronaut 002. 

She currently works as the company's chief astronaut instructor and was responsible for overseeing the training of Virgin Galactic's private passengers. She will fly alongside the Galactic 04 passengers as their Galactic liaison and collect observational data to inform future flights. This will be Moses' sixth spaceflight.

Two pilots will sit parallel, one in each of the double fuselages of VMS Eve, during Friday's Galactic 04 flight. The pair will coordinate the release of VSS Unity, before flying the carrier aircraft back to Spaceport America's runway at the end of the mission. 

• Jameel Janjua: Janjua is a retired Canadian Air Force Major with an extensive background as a test pilot. He earned a masters of science in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and flew as VMS Eve's pilot during Galactic 01.
• Nicola Pecile: Pecile has flown on 170 different aircraft since beginning his flying career in 1991, which included service in the Italian Air Force as a lieutenant colonel. He has a total of 7,700 flight hours, according to Virgin Galactic .

How long will Virgin Galactic's spaceflight last?

 —  Virgin Galactic carrier plane flies for 1st time since 2021

 —   Virgin Galactic launches 3 of its original space tourist customers to the final frontier (video)

 —   How Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo passenger space plane works (infographic)

The exact mission length is uncertain. On Virgin Galactic's past commercial flights, like June's Galactic 01 , about 1.5 hours passed between VMS Eve takeoff and the VSS Unity landing back at Spaceport America. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Josh Dinner is Space.com's Content Manager. He is a writer and photographer with a passion for science and space exploration, and has been working the space beat since 2016. Josh has covered the evolution of NASA's commercial spaceflight partnerships, from early Dragon and Cygnus cargo missions to the ongoing development and launches of crewed missions from the Space Coast, as well as NASA science missions and more. He also enjoys building 1:144 scale models of rockets and human-flown spacecraft. Find some of Josh's launch photography on Instagram and his website , and follow him on Twitter , where he mostly posts in haiku.

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• Brad Honestly it's almost impossible to care about these "missions to nowhere". Space tourism just doesn't make the connection for me. Reply
• Jana Petreková I watched with great interest last summer in 2021. I am very curious how it will turn out now. I really appreciate that so many women are participating in this project. That's what makes Virgin Galactic so amazingly special. Reply

Jana Petreková said: I watched with great interest last summer in 2021. I am very curious how it will turn out now. I really appreciate that so many women are participating in this project. That's what makes Virgin Galactic so amazingly special.

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Virgin Galactic's first space tourism flight took off this week. Here are the players taking civilians to space.

• Virgin Galactic launched its first space tourism flight for paying customers on August 10.
• It marks a new era in space tourism for the company, with monthly flights expected to follow. 
• Space tourism is a growing industry for the rich. Seats on a Virgin Galactic flight cost $450,000 each.

This week, Virgin Galactic's first space tourism flight successfully launched from New Mexico, taking three passengers who weren't traditional astronauts, to the edge of space and back .

Blasting off to the edge of space has become a more popular — though hardly mainstream — tourism experience. The company intends on operating commercial flights every month, ushering in a new era for space travel. 

Galactic 02's passengers included Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, a mother and daughter from the Caribbean who won their seats in a ticket raffle, as well as Jon Goodwin, an 80-year-old former Olympian . 

Virgin Galactic , Richard Branson's commercial space venture, was established in 2004 and completed its first commercial spaceflight in June. On the flight were three passengers from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council. 

Space tourism translates to big business for the company: In its second quarter earnings report, Virgin Galactic attributed an increase in quarterly revenue from $0.4 in 2022 to $2 million this year to "commercial spaceflight and membership fees related to future astronauts." 

Tickets for a seat on a Virgin Galactic rocket can cost $450,000, though some, like Goodwin, bought their tickets over a decade ago for $250,000.

The steep price doesn't seem to be keeping people away. As of the end of last year, about 800 tickets for commercial spaceflights had been reserved, the company said in its 2022 annual report . These tickets will translate to about $207 million in future revenue, per the report.

Virgin Galactic is not the only company in the game. In July 2021, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin sent four people, including Bezos, 62 miles above Earth, marking the first passenger spaceflight completed by the Amazon chairman's company, which was founded in 2000. 

Using a rocket called New Shepard , Blue Origin has completed six human spaceflights since.

There's also SpaceX, Elon Musk 's rocket company, which was founded in 2002 and is making concerted efforts in the commercial spaceflight industry.

In September 2021, SpaceX's Falcon 9  rocket took four civilians close to orbit without any professional astronauts on board. It was the first all-civilian crew to successfully complete a mission and was funded entirely by billionaire Jared Issacman. 

The following year, SpaceX , in conjunction with Axiom Space, launched the first all-private crew to the International Space Station, where they spent more than a week. The four attendees spent $55 million each for the trip.

Of course, most of us mere mortals aren't able to afford the price of entry into outer space. So until it becomes more affordable, here's a look at the options available to space tourists:

Virgin Galactic completed its first space tourism flight, dubbed Galactic 02, with paying customers on August 10. With monthly flights expected to take place moving forward, the company has asserted itself as a major player in the spaceflight industry.

Source: Virgin Galactic

The flight took off at 10:30 a.m. EST and landed at hour later, reaching a an apex point of 55 miles above the Earth. Virgin Galactic's next private spaceflight, Galactic 03, is planned for September.

The flight marked the first mother-daughter duo, Olympian, and majority female crew to go to space. Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers also become the first Caribbean astronauts.

Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial space flight, Galactic 01, at the end of June. The mission was for research, not tourism, and included three passengers from the Italian Air Force and National Research Council.

Source: Insider

The flight lasted 72 minutes from take off to landing.

Galactic 01's objectives were to measure hypergravity and microgravity effects on the human body.

Walter Villadei, a colonel in the Italian Air Force, was on the flight.

As of now, tickets are going for $450,000 a pop. While cabins can fit four people, Virgin Galactic intends on flying out only three passengers, reserving the final seat for an astronaut trainer.

Sources: Insider , Spacenews

Blue Origin's New Shepard made its ascent towards the edge of space and subsequent return back in August 2022. NS-22 was the company's most recent successful mission, and marked the rocket's 22nd mission to space and sixth human flight.

Source: Blue Origin

The calm before the storm: New Shepard at its launch pad ahead of NS-22 last year. Six crew members were part of the flight and getting ready inside the craft.

During the course of Blue Origin's 11-minute trips, tourists experience zero gravity, which offers a sense of weightlessness. The company requires passengers to take a course in order to prepare.

Mario Ferreira, a businessman and entrepreneur, became the first person from Portugal to travel to space after successfully completing NS-22. Sara Sabry, an engineer and CEO of the nonprofit Deep Space Initiative, pictured on the right, was the first person from Egypt to go to space.

Past Blue Origin passengers include "Star Trek" actor William Shatner, healthcare entrepreneur Glen de Vries, and Bezos' brother Mark.

Blue Origin is notoriously tight-lipped about its ticket pricing, but prior to its first commercial flight in July 2021, a passenger who later had to skip the flight due to "a scheduling conflict" said he'd paid $28 million to secure a seat.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is the only vessel that has sent private civilians to the International Space Station.

SpaceX's commercial space flight is the only one to actually send tourists into orbit, or 363 miles above Earth. In September 2021, a Falcon 9 rocket took four civilians into space for a total cost of around $220 million, paid for in full by billionaire Jared Isaacman.

Source: ABC

Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

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Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is the world’s first commercial spaceline, and our purpose is to connect people across the globe to the love, wonder and awe created by space travel. We believe that spaceflight has the unique ability to shift our perspectives, our technology, and even our trajectory as a species. As the spaceline for Earth, we aim to transform access to space for the benefit of humankind; to reveal the wonder of space to more people than ever before. Join us, and help pioneer this exciting new space age for humanity.

We’re comprised of hundreds of dedicated and passionate professionals all working towards the same mission – to be the Spaceline for Earth. We believe we can inspire future generations and make it possible to experience our planet from a different perspective.

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We recognise that the answers to many of the challenges we face in sustaining life on our beautiful, but fragile, planet lie in making better use of space. That’s why we seek to inspire young people through space-inspired Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiatives. Galactic Unite is an outreach initiative that’s come from a unique collaboration between the Future Astronaut community and Virgin’s non-profit foundation, Virgin Unite. Together we seek to drive a positive change for young people by channelling our collective energy and resources – working to ensure that future generations are equipped to apply the space perspective to earth’s greatest challenges.

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Relive Virgin Galactic's Suborbital Flight - See What It Was Like For The Passengers

Posted: August 20, 2024 | Last updated: August 20, 2024

Experience Virgin Galactic Unity's Galactic 02 flight with these amazing views from inside and out of suborbital space plane VSS Unity. Passengers: Jon Goodwin, Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers. Crew: Commander C.J. Sturckow, pilot Kelly Latimer and Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses. Credit: Space.com | footage courtesy: Virgin Galactic | edited by Steve Spaleta Music: Far Far Far by Bonnie Grace / courtesy of Epidemic Sound

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Covering the business and politics of space

Virgin Galactic outlines economics of its future spaceplanes

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In an “expanded fleet” model, with four spaceships and two mothership aircraft at the spaceport, Virgin Galactic estimates it can perform 275 flights a year, generating $990 million in revenue. That would result, the company estimates, in adjusted EBITDA of $450 million to $500 million a year.

Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science... More by Jeff Foust

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• Our Insights

Inspired magazine

Space: The ultimate travel high

21 August 2024

Please note: Barclays Private Bank does not endorse any of the companies or individuals referenced in this article.

The final frontier is finally opening up. How soon could new space tourism companies – previously the reserve of thrill-seeking billionaires – promise to offer something for almost everyone?

It’s been a long wait for space tourism to take off, and despite teething problems, trips into orbit may soon become more accessible. 

From 10-day stays on the space station for those ready to pay upwards of $55 million 1 , through to suborbital roller coaster jaunts for about $450,000 to more luxurious flights on stratospheric balloons for about $150,000 2  – the space tourism sector has the potential to cater to anyone desiring an otherworldly experience. That is, anyone who can afford it.

We are not quite there yet, but analysts see a bright future as demand has been steady despite setbacks. Supersonic climbs, freedom from the confines of gravity and magnificent views of the planet from above are so alluring that companies such as Virgin Galactic have accumulated waiting lists of hundreds of wannabe spacefarers. 

By the end of this decade, space tourism flights may be taking off multiple times per week, and tickets might settle at more affordable levels, allowing many more adventurers to enjoy something that has so far been prohibitively expensive. 

Journey to the edge of space

The world first caught space fever two decades ago when SpaceShipOne, an experimental three-person space plane was developed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan, winner of the Ansari X Prize. The star-covered vehicle blasted off towards the edge of space from below the White Knight carrier plane above California’s Mojave Desert on 21 June 2004. It became the first crewed, privately built vehicle to cross the Kármán line, the theoretical boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space at an altitude of 100 kilometres (km). 

Virgin Galactic soon stepped in, contracting Rutan’s company Scaled Composites to develop a larger vehicle to provide the experience to paying customers. That bigger spaceplane, SpaceShipTwo, first rolled out of its hangar in 2009 amid promises it would be taking paid trips to space in three years’ time. The wait, indeed, was much longer, marred by a crash in 2015 that killed one pilot and seriously injured the other. 

Veering off course 

But in July 2021, Virgin Galactic was ready to prove naysayers wrong, sending SpaceShipTwo for its first fully crewed adventure. The flight didn’t go as well as Virgin Galactic had hoped, resulting in a grounding by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration 3  after SpaceShipTwo veered off its permitted path. 

Hot on Virgin Galactic’s heels was Blue Origin, whose New Shepard rocket blasted off the company’s spaceport in Texas only nine days after Virgin’s ill-fated flight. Since then, the two companies have sent more than 50 people to space between them.

Virgin Galactic offers tickets for $450,000 4 . It is not known how much Blue Origin charges, but a seat on the company’s first crewed trip in 2021 sold for $28 million 5  in an online auction. Right now, flight opportunities are limited, and it’s not clear who gets priority. 

Seven minutes of weightlessness

Although Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic’s suborbital vehicles are quite different, they both offer short spells of weightlessness, estimated to last seven minutes. To put the brevity into context, the ride on Blue Origin’s pilotless New Shepard 6  lasts just 11 minutes. 

When the rocket shoots upwards, passengers get pinned into their seats with three times the force of Earth’s gravity. The squeeze lasts about two-and-a-half minutes, reaching three times the speed of sound.  

When the engine cuts out, the capsule enters free fall, although technically still climbing for another one-and-a half minutes. In that moment, the weight dissolves and hyper gravity changes into weightlessness. 

The window seat

Behind the capsule’s large windows, the curvature of the Earth shrouded in the misty atmosphere retreats. With the thickest layer of the atmosphere left behind, the sky turns black, revealing its star-studded beauty. Passengers can then unbuckle from their seats and explore different perspectives from each of New Shepard’s windows, which are the largest-ever in space 7 .

The capsule reaches its peak about 100km above the planet and begins its seven-minute descent. The weightless reverie comes to a halt when the deployment of the parachute stops the freefall some 2km above Earth’s surface. The passengers, by this time strapped back in their seats, briefly experience a pressure equal to five times Earth’s gravity. 

Soaring skywards

The trip with Virgin Galactic is a longer affair, involving a take-off of the twin-fuselage White Knight Two carrier plane that drops off SpaceShipTwo with its passengers at an altitude of 15.5km. From there, SpaceShipTwo soars skyward, having already bypassed the densest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. 

Similar to the experience of Blue Shepard passengers, space tourists inside Virgin Galactic’s plane experience about three times the force of Earth’s gravity during the rocket-powered climb, followed by seven minutes of weightless floating. 

Instead of using parachutes, SpaceShipTwo’s pilots manoeuvre the plane out of free fall by deploying a breaking tail some 16km above the Earth. The plane then glides back to the spaceport like any normal aircraft.

Virgin Galactic is currently working on its next-generation Delta spaceplane that will be able to fly six passengers and take off for its out-of-this-world excursions twice a week. If all goes well, Delta will pass its test flights in 2025 and commence commercial operations in 2026, allowing Virgin Galactic to finally attend to its growing waiting list. 

Less is known about Blue Origin’s plans as the company also has stakes in the more ambitious orbital and lunar travel market, planning to launch its own space station, the Orbital Reef, by the end of this decade.

Unfortunately for some, rocket flight may not be for everyone. Although people as old as 90 have taken part in sub-orbital flights, many medical conditions prohibit participation. An alternative for comfort lovers may soon become available, which anyone fit enough to fly on a commercial jet could be able to enjoy. 

US-based Space Perspective and Spain-headquartered HALO Space are building pressurised capsules that could rise to the stratosphere, the second lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere, attached to helium-filled balloons. 

Such a voyage involves a minor jerk at lift-off as the balloon pulls the capsule off the ground at 12 miles per hour. Rather than an adrenaline-filled roller coaster, the balloon would offer a six-hour meditative cruise complete with fine dining and champagne. 

The full-on experience

For those with the deepest pockets and an insatiable appetite for adventure, options are also set to expand. The Inspiration4 mission saw four civilians orbit Earth for three days in SpaceX’s Dragon Crew capsule in September 2021. Commander and sponsor, entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, has since announced plans to fly a further three private missions as part of the Polaris Dawn project. Isaacman’s and SpaceX’s daring mission involves venturing nearly four times farther than the International Space Station.

Opportunities for private visits to the International Space Station are also expanding as U.S.-based Axiom offers 10-day trips for $55 million 8  a seat. 

In the future, the price of these trips might drop if plans to build private space stations by companies including Axiom, Blue Origin and Airbus come to fruition at the end of this decade.

More and more of us, it seems, could soon have the opportunity to go where very few have gone before.

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Important information

Axiomspace.com, ‘Want to take a 10-day trip to the space station? It will cost you USD55 million’, 14 June 2018  Return to reference

Virgin Galactic website, ‘Virgin Galactic launches spaceflight reserves and new consumer brand’, 15 February 2022  Return to reference

Ars Technica, ‘The FAA The FAA grounds Virgin Galactic’s spaceship after flight deviation’, 9 February 2021 Return to reference

Blue Origin website, ‘The very first seat on New Shephard sells for USD28 million’, 12 June 2021 Return to reference

Blue Origin website, ‘New Shepard is ushering in new generations of astronauts’, 20 May 2024 Return to reference

Axiom Space, ‘Want to take a 10-day trip to the space station? It’ll cost you USD55 million’, 14 June 2018 Return to reference