People who like to travel via cheap travel options, such as cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages should not be thinking about flying in outer space any time soon.
In April, Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of Bransons Virgin Group, lit a rocket motor for the first time in the air and the spaceship went through the sound barrier.
A seat on SpaceShip Two is currently being sold for $250,000. Virgin Galactic argues that at this price is a relative bargain given that it is only about one percent of the price someone would have had to pay to go to space as a private citizen before now.
The worlds first space tourist purchased a seat aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2001 for almost $20 million.
Even though flights to outer space will not start until sometime in 2014 at the earliest, Virgin Galactic has already sold 640 seats.
The following is what a $250,000 ticket buys you:
Three days of training at Spaceport American in New Mexico. Passengers need to get psychologically prepared for this sensory overload trip.
There will be six passengers on each flight.
Flights will last two and a half hours, culminating with congratulatory champagne at the spaceport.
Space travelers will be able to leave their seats to experience several minutes of zero gravity as well as take in the most iconic view man has ever witnessed.
Many space enthusiasts will have to wait and hope that the price drops. Virgin claims that its space travel is not about business. Instead Virgin claims it is about the creation of a new and important industry that will transform space access.
One of the intended byproducts of Virgins initiative is to stimulate competition and result in economies of scale driving down the price. The hope is that it will be possible for most people to go into space in the not too distant future.
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