Virgin Galactic is ready to take off with its first paying passengers in August, but the flights are sold out at $200,000 to $450,000 each for a 90-minute round trip to the edge of space.
The first flight will actually take place next week, with a research crew on board, but after that it’s open to the public, six at a time, and willing to pay high prices for five minutes of weightlessness mid-trip. The company has sold about 800 tickets, some years in advance.
Unlike launch companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic’s space plane launches not from a ground-based rocket but from a modified 747 that carries it into space. That was also the method planned for its sister company, Virgin Orbit, which ceased operations and declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
The passenger module, called VSS Unity, launches about 10 miles above the earth’s surface, firing its rocket motor to reach an altitude of over 50 miles before returning to earth.
