In addition to the weightlessness, the passengers will get to see the Earth from space in all its glory and magnificence.Virgin Galactic spaceflight: While the facility to travel to space just like a tour is a marvellous achievement of human capabilities and imagination, those wanting to become space tourists will have to pay a fortune for the opportunity. According to an Indian Express report, the space flights scheduled to be taken to space by Virgin Galactic will cost at least $450,000 for a person, which is over Rs 3 crore. Billionaires and celebrities of the world might be happier to know that the cost estimated to be paid for the Virgin Galactic space flight is far less than what the winning bidder paid for travelling to space with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on the rocket system New Shepard. Out of over 7600 people from 159 countries who had shown interest in reserving the seat, the lucky winner ultimately got the seat for $28 million.
Significance of Virgin Galactic announcement
Owner of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson along with three employees of his company were successful in reaching the edge of the space last month. Branson and his team had boarded the SpaceShipTwo to complete their journey. Virgin Galactic is not the first company that has ventured into the fast emerging field of space tourism as other companies including Virgin Atlantic, SpaceX, XCOR Aerospace, Blue Origin and Armadillo Aerospace are already planning to launch space tourism services for common people. Just like any other tour, the space tourism industry is aiming at taking the common man to a space which has so far been inhabited for the briefest of time by trained astronauts.
How can tickets be booked?
Apart from the two pilots of the spacecraft, the SpaceShipTwo can accommodate another six “tourists” and has been claimed to have more windows than any other spacecraft by the company. The company has said that the interested individuals can complete a preliminary registration by paying a refundable $1000 fee. Once the registration is done, the company will inform the registered people as and when the tickets finally go on sale.
Big names that have already signed up
More than 600 ultra rich people from around the world have signed up for the facility including singer Justin Beiber and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The company has stressed on the fact that it has a vision of starting hundreds of similar space flights in future to democratise space travel and giving an opportunity to an ordinary person to shell out a few thousand dollars and behold the Earth from space.
How will be space experience?
All the so-called astronauts who will finally be given an opportunity to board the spaceflight will be given a three-days training before they actually board the spacecraft. SpaceShipTwo which will travel to space will then be linked to an ordinary aircraft that will take the spacecraft to a height of about 50,000 feet. At this height, the spacecraft will detach itself and travel to space at a speed more than three times of the sound.
Passengers will also be given an opportunity to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness as there will be no gravity on the spacecraft. In addition to the weightlessness, the passengers will get to see the Earth from space in all its glory and magnificence.
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