The space company has launched the sale of tickets for tourist flights into space for everyone

Virgin Galactic, the space travel company founded by British entrepreneur Richard Branson, announced on Feb. 15 that it will start selling tickets for pleasure trips to the stratosphere this week. Cost: A whopping $450, reports NBCNews. .

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Starting February 16, members of the public will be able to reserve a seat for the upcoming suborbital spaceflight.

“We plan to bring our first 1000 customers to commercial service later this year,” said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic.

During the 90-minute flight, passengers will ascend to an altitude of more than 80 km and experience approximately four minutes of weightlessness before returning to Earth.

Space tourists will fly aboard SpaceShipTwo's Unity rocket ship. The ship is designed to take off from a conventional runway attached to the bottom of the carrier ship. Vehicles fly to a height of 15m where Unity is released and its engine is ignited to propel it.

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The Virgin Galactic spacecraft will launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico. According to the company, the booking includes several days of training and spaceflight training programs.

Last year, Branson himself flew a suborbital flight as part of Virgin Galactic's first full-crew expedition. That July flight was later the subject of an accident investigation by the US Federal Aviation Administration after SpaceShipTwo was found to have deviated from its intended airspace course during its descent.

The FAA suspended the space tourism company while it investigates, but in late September Virgin Galactic was cleared to return to flying. At the time, the FAA said the company had made "necessary changes" to communications during missions. Virgin Galactic also said it has taken steps to expand its protected airspace for upcoming flights.

Branson's 2021 suborbital walk took place less than two weeks before fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos also reached the stratosphere aboard a rocket and capsule developed by his own space company, Blue Origin.

The publicized events heralded a new era in the private spaceflight industry, fueled by rivalries between companies such as Blue Origin, SpaceX and Virgin Galactic.

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Blue Origin has not announced how much suborbital flights aboard the New Shepard rocket and capsule will cost, although tickets are likely to cost several hundred thousand dollars.

SpaceX, which has been flying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station since 2020, is focusing more on orbital tourism. The company made history last year after it launched four private passengers into orbit on its first all-civilian spaceflight.

SpaceX is partnering with Houston-based Axiom Space to launch a former NASA astronaut and three private clients, each reportedly paid $55 million, to the International Space Station.

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