According to SPACE.com, Virgin Galactic is right on target. Carolyn Wincer, head of Astronaut Sales for the company, told the website that 200 people have already put a deposit down on a ticket to fly into space. The price per seat is $200,000, and the flights are scheduled to begin in 2009.
Virgin Galactic officials had expected a slow period in ticket buying until the unveiling of their first passenger ship later this year, but Wincer said that hasn't happened. She argued that was good news for the company as well as for the new space tourism industry. Virgin Galactic plans a fleet of at least five passenger spacecraft, each capable of carrying six passengers. Do the math. With that much capability, and assuming reasonable flight rates, the 200 now waiting will get their flights fairly quickly into the effort, if all goes well. Virgin Galactic and its leader, Sir Richard Branson, seem to be building for the long term.
That long term is going to play out from the company's headquarters at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The flights planned so far are all suborbital. The entire experience a passenger will get will run three days; the flight itself will take about 2.5 hours, with about 30 minutes of that actually in what is defined as space by international bodies that govern such things,
Virgin Galactic may not live up to its name quite yet, but it seems off to a promising start.
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