Virgin Galactic, first provider of the service
JM | August 10, 2023
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RELATED TOPICS: New Mexico, Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic, Virgin Orbits
Remember this date: August 10, 2023. It is the day the first space flight for tourists took place. His promoter, Richard Branson; his company, Virgin Galactic; his spaceship, Galactic 02; his first three clients an 80-year-old retired Olympian and a mother and daughters from the Caribbean.
The Unity rocket will send tourists into space from a base in New Mexico, at Spaceport AMERICA. Unity will take off from Earth attached to the Eve ship, from which it will separate upon entering space.
The space tourism market is considered to be capable of moving several billion dollars a year, but time is still required. Virgin says they have already sold about 800 tickets for these trips at a price of $450,000.
Do not confuse Virgin Galactic, the company that transports tourists, with Virgin Orbits, now defunct, which was to become a space rocket launcher to position satellites in orbit and which failed so many times that, finally, it ended up bankrupt. Galactic has a less ambitious horizon: it only intends to take tourists into space and return them to earth.
No expert expects this market to be really important in the future, but it can be a specific niche. No one talks about the environmental impact of this type of tourism. The experts show some concern for safety on these trips which, for their part, has already caused the company enough headaches when it comes to ensuring the lives of its customers.
as revealed REPORTUR.us, the company had planned for August 2022 to start with the first private trips into space. This delay also affects the research mission and its first tourist flight, since it has to update the security of its two ships but it would start a month later than projected. This “enhancement program” will isolate their vehicles from service for 8-10 months (Virgin Galactic starts selling spaceflight tickets).
