Are you prepared to book a spaceflight?
It's one tiny step for Virgin Galactic... and one huge check for humanity. Spaceflight is now again available for purchase as of February 16: Virgin Galactic reopened online registration for its first commercial flights beyond the Earth's atmosphere today—90-minute, four-passenger voyages that herald the start of citizen space tourism.
There are a limited amount of reservations available for these historic excursions, which are set to begin in late 2022, and only a small number of daring travellers will be able to buy the $450,000 ticket. Bookings began in 2014, when high-profile passengers—the Brad Pitts and Lady Gagas of the world—paid $250,000 each for a seat in space. Following successful test flights with Virgin Group founder and billionaire Sir Richard Branson aboard last summer, Virgin Galactic reopened bookings in August with a "purposeful variety of product offers," according to CEO Michael Colglazier.
"Our goods for private astronaut flights will include a single seat, multi-seat couples, a families and friends package, and a full-flight buyout," he explained. "Prices for the next round of private astronaut sales will start at $450,000 per ticket." The cost of microgravity research and professional astronaut training missions remains $600,000 per seat equivalent."
Given that there isn't yet a Kayak for spaceflights, everything starts with the virgingalactic.com website. Click "I want to make a spaceflight reservation immediately," which is an exciting/nervous initial step in and of itself, so Virgin Galactic receives your application and puts you to the waiting list. (Note: I didn't apply since I don't want to be on the hook for a half-million dollars, but I did fill out the form to learn more about any undetermined, far-in-the-future travels.) Because, well, why not?!)
By making a reservation, you become a Future Astronaut, which is similar to Virgin Galactic's loyalty programme for like-minded "pioneers" who have already registered. More than 700 Future Astronauts are expected to travel, with access to Virgin Galactic training, technology, and tours. Curiosity seekers can choose to stay on Earth and learn more about events and experiences, STEM programmes and scholarships, and apparel (of course), as well as geek out about space news with other amateur and professional scientists. As a result, a community is formed.
The first fully crewed spaceflights took launched in July 2021—Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity with Branson on July 11, and Blue Origin's New Shepherd with founder Jeff Bezos nine days later—and the private space race was officially underway. Still, the drive of innovation and exploration has consequences; we don't know much about the environmental impact of space tourism yet.
What we do know is a little bit about the experience. If you visit virgingalactic.com, you will discover the following:
Virgin Galactic astronauts will board a winged spaceship tethered to a mothership and soar to 50,000 feet—about 20,000 feet higher than the normal commercial flight—at which time the pilots will say "3, 2, 1, release" and jettison the mothership. (There's a maternal metaphor in there somewhere.) Rockets ignite, and the spaceship accelerates to speeds of up to 2,600 miles per hour, or almost three and a half times the speed of sound.
The rockets will launch after a one-minute burst, and passengers will experience what they came all this way for: pure, blissful weightlessness in microgravity and vistas of Earth from 17 windows. It's the ultimate of a #roomwithaview for a hospitality corporation like Virgin Group—empire Branson's of airlines, hotels, cruises, and now, spaceships. But, clearly, this journey is much more than a scenic drive. "You may just stop. And have a peek. Up a testimonial, Beth Moses, a Virgin Galactic astronaut and lead astronaut instructor, advises, "And soak it in." "You get a really deep, spiritual, basic connection to the home planet... it just remains with you."
Regardless of how life-changing it sounds, if you're having trouble committing this week (or don't want to sell all your worldly goods for a ticket), don't worry: Blue Origin is now accepting bookings for the years 2022, 2023-2024, and "2025 and beyond."
0 Comments