{"id":11531,"date":"2021-08-06T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-05T16:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-galactic-re-opens-ticket-sales-first-commercial-flight-slips-to-late-22\/"},"modified":"2021-08-06T00:01:02","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T16:01:02","slug":"virgin-galactic-re-opens-ticket-sales-first-commercial-flight-slips-to-late-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-galactic-re-opens-ticket-sales-first-commercial-flight-slips-to-late-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic re-opens ticket sales, first commercial flight slips to late \u201922"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>STORY WRITTEN FOR&nbsp;CBS NEWS&nbsp;&amp; USED WITH PERMISSION<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_52863\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-52863\" style=\"width: 1050px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-52863\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/UNITY-2_6.00_37_55_04.Still001.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1050\" height=\"591\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/UNITY-2_6.00_37_55_04.Still001.jpg 1050w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/UNITY-2_6.00_37_55_04.Still001-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/UNITY-2_6.00_37_55_04.Still001-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/UNITY-2_6.00_37_55_04.Still001-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-52863\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The rocket motor on Virgin Galactic\u2019s VSS Unity rocket plane fires during a July 11 climb to space with Richard Branson and other company employees. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Virgin Galactic, buoyed by a successful July 11 suborbital test flight with founder Richard Branson on the company\u2019s winged rocket plane, re-opened ticket sales Thursday for rides to space starting at $450,000 per seat.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, also revealed that fully commercial flights are not expected until the third quarter of 2022, after two more test flights of the company\u2019s VSS Unity spaceplane and extensive upgrades of Virgin\u2019s Eve carrier jet to improve durability and turnaround times between flights.<\/p>\n<p>While the start of commercial operations will come a few months later than had been hoped, the results of two piloted test flights earlier this year, including Branson\u2019s July 11 trip to space, show the company is close to \u201ccompleting our test flight program and launching commercial passenger service in \u201922,\u201d Colglazier said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd as we advance towards that goal, we are excited to announce today that we will immediately open ticket sales to our significant list of early hand raisers, prioritizing our spacefarer community who, as promised, will be given first opportunity to reserve their place to space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said Virgin has developed a \u201cpurposeful range of product offerings in order to satisfy the different ways people were want to share this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the private astronaut flights, our products will include a single seat, a multi-seat couples, families and friends package and a full-flight buyout,\u201d he said. \u201cPrices for this next phase of private astronaut sales will begin at $450,000 per seat. Microgravity research and professional astronaut training flights remain priced at $600,000 on a per seat equivalent basis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More than 600 space enthusiasts made down payments on flights much earlier in the program, back when tickets were thought to be in the neighborhood of $250,000 per seat. The prices announced Thursday presumably will apply to new customers only.<\/p>\n<p>How the \u201cearly hand raisers\u201d will be accommodated is not yet known, but Colglazier promised to prioritize the waiting list to give them early opportunities to fly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are not just watching history be made, we are making it happen together,\u201d Virgin tweeted. \u201cThank you for joining us on this journey into the next era of space travel. We invite you to visit our website to register for updates and future ticket information.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are not just watching history be made, we are making it happen together. Thank you for joining us on this journey into the next era of space travel. We invite you to visit our website to register for updates and future ticket information: https:\/\/t.co\/5UalYTpiHL. pic.twitter.com\/eZ2cEDPpQS<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) August 5, 2021<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic is competing with Blue Origin, owned by Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, to sell sub-orbital up-and-down flights to the edge of space to wealthy space tourists, national space agencies and research institutions. Both companies also will launch automated or human-tended microgravity research payloads.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic has launched four piloted test flights, the most recent coming on July 11 when the VSS Unity spaceplane, making its 22nd flight overall, carried Branson, two pilots and three company employees above the 50-mile-high altitude recognized by the FAA and NASA as the \u201cboundary\u201d between space and the discernible atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>Blue Origin launched its more traditional New Shepard rocket and capsule on 14 unpiloted test flights, all of them successful, before sending passengers aloft for the first time, including Bezos, on July 20.<\/p>\n<p>Two more New Shepard launches are planned later this year, both presumably carrying paying customers. Blue Origin ticket prices have not been revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin plans its next flight, Unity 23, in late September, carrying a complement of Italian air force personnel, before standing down for several months to upgrade the Eve carrier jet to improve its durability and shorten the turnaround time between flights. At the same time, the company plans to begin flight testing another spaceplane, the VSS Imagine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe expect Eve to complete its enhancement program around mid year 2022,\u201d Colglazier said. \u201cIn early Q3, Imagine is planned to begin (glide) flight testing and Unity 24 will fly a full crew of mission specialists to confirm the cabin interior adjustments are functioning as planned. Unity 25, our first commercial private astronaut fight is planned for late Q3.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STORY WRITTEN FOR&nbsp;CBS NEWS&nbsp;&amp; USED WITH PERMISSION The rocket motor on Virgin Galactic\u2019s VSS Unity rocket plane fires during a July 11 climb to space with Richard Branson and other company employees. Credit: Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic, buoyed by a successful July 11 suborbital test flight with founder Richard Branson on the company\u2019s winged rocket [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}