You can now purchase tickets to take a trip to space through Virgin Galactic’s space plane

• Richard Branson-owned Virgin Galactic has tickets on sale for the next human space flight.
• Each ticket costs ₹$450,000 for a space trip that lets you experience weightlessness and view the Earth’s curvature.
• Virgin Galactic kicked off space tourism last year with the billionaire himself joining the company’s first human space flight.

2021 was a big year for space tourism with the first billionaires taking a trip around Earth. Richard Branson who owns Virgin Galactic kicked off space tourism in 2021 with the billionaire himself taking the first trip. The spaceflight company has now opened ticket sales for anyone interested in taking a space trip.

There are a total of 1,000 tickets up for grabs and each ticket costs ₹$450,000. The ticket window is open right now but there’s no word on when it will close. For this space trip, Virgin Galactic will use its space plane called VSS Unity that takes off under the carrier aircraft, VMS Eve. Once both the space plane and aircraft reaches an altitude of around 50,000 feet, the space plane drops and flies to orbital space powered by its own rocket motor.

VSS Unity has a capacity of up to six passengers and two pilots. People inside the space plane can experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of Earth during that time. The total duration of the space trip is 90 minutes.

There’s only one space plane under Virgin Galactic at the moment but there are plans for more. The company is currently working on two more space planes — VSS Imagine and VSS Inspire. VSS Imagine is expected to begin test flights this year while VSS Inspire is still under construction.

Branson isn’t the only billionaire offering trips to space. Amazon's Jeff Bezos, who owns Blue Origin, conducted its first successful human space flight last year. Blue Origin also completed its third human space flight in 2021 alone. There are more space tourism plans including one that aims to fly people in a capsule carried by a hot air balloon.

SEE ALSO:
Carl Pei hints at a possible Nothing Android smartphone with a Snapdragon chip
Twitter's anti-abuse tool 'Safety Mode' now available in more countries