Waiting to be able to fly, Virgin Galactic opens its ticket office

450,000 dollars is the price of a few minutes of weightlessness aboard the Virgin Galactic space plane; the company has just opened reservations, although it is still awaiting US federal clearances.

Virgin Galatic, the billionaire firm Richard Branson founded in 2004, is finally approaching its operational phase, namely taking tourists for a few minutes to the space border to give them the experience of seeing the Earth from up there and enjoying the feeling of weightlessness that goes with it.

The long development of the company, which cost the lives of 4 people, had concluded with the first tourist flight with Richard Branson himself on board last summer. However, no customers on board, but company employees. Following this flight, which left its airspace, the FAA banned further test flightsand the campaign certificate is still not finished.

No big deal for Virgin Galactic which has now opened flight reservations to its customers via his website Internetbut also to scientific research that wants to take advantage of microgravity, just like AirZeroG flights on board the Airbus A310.

If you want to offer yourself the experience, count all the same nearly 400,000 euros. A substantial ticket, certainly much more affordable than the orbital adventure offered by Space Adventures or by SpaceX. You will have to be patient: more than 700 people have already used their credit card, with four tourists per flight, almost 200 flights are already planned.

No information on the frequency of these flights but all gate to believe that they will already take several years, we are not talking about a simple plane here but about a reusable space vehicle which will have to be overhauled on each flight and await authorizations, all with a duration limited life. Moreover, such a number of flights will not be without fueling the criticisms of the scientific community concerning the ecological impact of this activity which is more important than that of its competitor Blue Origin.

If, by any chance, you are not a millionaire, you can take refuge in the French experience of the AirZeroG flight for 6,000 euros; the experience of weightlessness is by definition strictly identical, except that it is longer. Only the view, obviously, does not differ so much from that of a classic airplane flight, on this point, nothing will be able to compete with a space flight: see the earth from above and contemplating its grandeur and its value is something that will happily always make you dream.