The ticket price for a Virgin Galactic space flight is $450,000 per seat
People hoping to get a close-up look at outer space received good news this week, with Virgin Galactic reopening sales for its 90-minute joyrides on the company’s air-launched rockets.
Virgin Galactic had previously halted sales after an issue with its inaugural flight — which sent founder Sir Richard Branson to the edge of space — caused the Federal Aviation Administration to ground flights while a review was conducted.
Now given the all clear by the FAA, Virgin Galactic is once again selling seats on the flights for a price of $450,000 per ticket.
Virgin Galactic says it has already acquired 600 reservations from when it first launched ticket sales at around $200,000 to $250,000 a head, reports CNN Business.
Space tourists who purchase seats on the flights are required to place a $150,000 deposit for the ticket, with the full amount due prior to takeoff.
CEO Michael Colglazier announced during Virgin Galactic’s latest earnings call in November that the company has sold around 100 seats at the new $450,000 price point, with a goal of selling 1,000 prior to beginning its commercial flight operations.
Virgin Galactic’s inaugural flight took off in July, however it had to suspend operations after a New Yorker report revealed that warning lights had gone off during the flight and that the space plane had left its designated air space for 41 seconds.
The company has since made technology upgrades, it says, and now expects to begin flying paying customers up to the edge of space before October.
Initially, Virgin Galactic had said it hoped to get commercial flights in operation by 2020 when it first went public in 2019.
Virgin Galactic’s stock jumped more than 30% upon news of ticket sales resuming, reports CNN Business.
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