Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceship is finally ready for commercial space travel. Virgin Galactic announced on February 15 that ticket sales for a 90-minute flight would become available on Wednesday, February 16.
The price? $450,000. But hey, they are offering a payment plan. Put $150,000 down and pay the rest before you board the spacecraft.
Along with the announcement, Virgin Galactic released its rebranded logo featuring a purple outlined image of its spacecraft.
The company tweeted that the new look captures the “love, wonder, and awe of the experience of viewing Earth from space, and to inspire generations of future astronauts around the world.”
The space travel experience starts at Virgin’s Spaceport America in New Mexico. Passengers will arrive days before the flight for pre-flight training and to take part in pre-boarding activities. Guests will enjoy private, world-class accommodations while on-site for the pre-flight activities.
The trip will take ninety minutes, with a portion of the flight weightless. Each ship holds four passengers and can reach a maximum speed of 2,600 miles per hour.
One Twitter user who responded to the news of Virgin Galactic’s commercial flight expansion wasn’t impressed, tweeting, “just attach a GoPro to a weather balloon for $50-150.”
Virgin Galactic’s announcement about ticket sales caused a stir among investors, with the company’s stock surging 33% on Tuesday. Forbes tweeted the spaceline struck “a one-month high of about $10.91 [per share], helping the stock pare losses of more than eighty percent over the past year.”
“At Virgin Galactic, we believe that space is transformational,” Michael Colglazier, the CEO of Virgin Galactic, said in a statement to Businesswire.com. “We plan to have our first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year, providing a strong foundation as we begin regular operations and scale our fleet.”
