Pricey Commercial Space Flights Taking Off This Summer

Virgin Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's pioneering space tourism company, is preparing for takeoff on its first commercial space flights. And just like the (now ill-fated) expedition to the Titanic wreckage, it doesn't come cheap. 

The first flight, Galactic 01, is scheduled to take place between June 27 and 30, with exact takeoff date and time determined by weather. It's meant to ensure the safety of future flights, as a team of scientists from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Center of Italy will be on board conducting microgravity research. 

Galactic 02, the first flight carrying paying members of the public, will take off in early August. After that, Virgin Galactic will run flights to the edge of space every month. 

If you want to jump on board right away, you'll have to get in line. Virgin has sold approximately 800 tickets over the past decade in preparation for its first commercial flights. The initial batch had tickets priced at $200,000 each; today, one seat will run you $450,000, per The Points Guy. 

Michael Colglazier, the company's CEO, expressed his excitement about the upcoming launch in a statement. "We are launching the first commercial spaceline for Earth with two dynamic products: our scientific research and private astronaut space missions," he said. "This next exciting chapter for Virgin Galactic has been driven by innovation, determination, and a commitment to delivering an unparalleled and truly transformative customer experience."

Unlike competitors like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic has a unique launch method to get its passengers into space. Rather than opting for a traditional vertical rocket launch, it uses a carrier aircraft, the White Knight Two, that takes off from a runway like a normal passenger airplane. Once it reaches around 10 miles above the Earth's surface, it detaches its rocket-powered space plane, the VSS Unity, which continues on to an altitude of more than 50 miles above the Earth's surface. Here, the VSS Unity crosses into the edge of space as riders experience a few precious minutes of zero gravity. 

Total flight time will be approximately 90 minutes, which includes five minutes of weightlessness, before returning to Earth. Passengers will glide to a soft landing at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert. 

With commercial space flights finally becoming a reality and supersonic flights possibly making a comeback, it's certainly an exciting time to think about the future of air travel. But with prohibitively high fares, it will be a while before most people will get to experience it themselves.