Virgin Galactic Unveils First Commercial Space Plane

Have you ever dreamt of soaring around the edge of our earth, with nothing but our entire galaxy in front of you? Well, believe it or not, that’s becoming a reality, and far sooner than you’d likely imagine. Virgin, a company that partakes in pretty much every industry there is, is launching “Virgin Galactic”, a service that will make Virgin Atlantic look boring when it finally launches.

For the past couple of years, legendary aircraft designer, Burt Rutan, has been working at Virgin to build the world’s first “commercial rocket plane”. Burt earned the $10 million Ansari X prize back in 2004, so the potential for the plane to become a reality was good from the get go. Though there have been varying models of the planes throughout the years, the one to haul people into space is called SpaceShipTwo, and carries two pilots and six passengers.

The cost, at least at first, is a little overwhelming… $200,000 per passenger. So far, at least 300 people have either paid that up-front, or have paid a down-payment, showing that there is extreme interest in galactic flight. What’s holding the trip back at this point is a combination of current construction of the spaceport, and also government regulations that must be first passed.

Test flights are set to launch next year, and if all goes well, the first flights to bring customers into space will take place in 2011. Think the asking price is a little expensive? It almost seems justified when you realize that each plane will cost upwards of $80 million, and looking at things from that perspective, you almost have to wonder if Virgin ever expects to see a return. I can’t see that many people willing to part with $200,000, but I could be wrong. Who knows, in ten years from now, this kind of travel might seem completely normal!

“There is definitely a business model,” he said in an interview. “We’ve got more billionaires on the planet and millionaires than ever before in the history of humanity. It’s the same thing with every new technology, whether it’s cell phones or airplanes, the wealthy step up first, they pay the higher ticket price and eventually it becomes available to everybody. We need to demonstrate the market and the technology will follow.”