Virgin Galactic to have Fully Commercial Space Flights Next Year

By Caelan Webster, DAA Daily, The Pawprint

Virgin Galactic is to fully open their commercial high-altitude plane flight into space in 2023, at a price of 450,000 USD per ticket. For that, the flight will last around 90 minutes, with around 2 or 3 minutes of that spent in space. With eight seats available in the spacecraft, it is the highest capacity commercial space vehicle ever made. Though this is a lot of money for many ordinary citizens, it will be the cheapest available method of reaching the stars. Its Closest competitor, Blue Origin, sells tickets in an auction format, with passengers having paid anywhere from 1-28 million dollars, depending on who they are and the flight they book.

With its cheaper price, Virgin Galactic does have some drawbacks. It only reaches 80,000 feet in altitude, which is 20,000 feet below the Karman Line that the Blue Origin rocket reaches. Because of this, those flying Virgin Galactic will spend only around 2 minutes leaving their seats and experiencing zero-gravity, as opposed to Blue Origin’s 4. However, Virgin Galactic is still set to be a monumental step in space exploration, opening the ability to leave earth for many. With numerous successful test flights having already been completed, Virgin Galactic seems to be on its way to success.