Virgin Galactic to Reopen Ticket Sales for Rides to Space

After selling 600 first round tickets at $200,000 to $250,000 a seat for a flight to suborbital space, Virgin Galactic has reopened their lucrative extraterrestrial tourism trip to customers. 

According to CNN, tickets will now cost $450,000 for the 90-minute trip. The company announced that tickets will be going back on sale on Feb. 16 and will require a $150,000 deposit, with the rest of the total due before the flight takes off.

The first commercial flight for Virgin Galactic also has not happened yet. Last July, the company launched its founder, Sir Richard Branson, to the edge of space before beginning runs with first round ticket holders. However, the service light began to flash during Branson’s flight and reports have said that the ship went outside of its intended airspace for 41 seconds. That caused the Federal Aviation Administration to ground all future flights from Virgin Galactic until further notice. That order was lifted in September after the company’s crafts were inspected. 

Virgin Galactic went public in 2019 and has yet to have a commercial flight take off. The company’s stock jumped 32%, though, after it was announced that they would be selling tickets for the second round of commercial flights. Its competitor, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, on the other hand, has had three successful trips already with a full crew. It is still unknown how much tickets cost to be on those suborbital trips.