Three more tourists took a short trip into space with British billionaire Richard Branson’s space company Virgin Galactic.
Two British and one American entrepreneurs took off with the “VSS Unity” from a spaceport in the US state of New Mexico and landed around an hour later, the company said. The three passengers, who also experienced weightlessness for a few minutes, had bought their tickets many years ago.
It was Virgin Galactic’s third commercial flight: at the end of June, three Italian scientists took part in the company’s first commercial all-space flight; in August, an 80-year-old ex-Olympian and a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean took part. State of Antigua and Barbuda, who had won the tickets in a charity lottery, on board.
Branson and his company have been working towards the start of commercial flight operations for around 20 years – with repeated setbacks. According to the company, the tickets now cost around 450,000 dollars (around 400,000 euros). According to media reports, around 800 tickets for future flights have already been sold. Other companies also offer space trips to wealthy people, including Blue Origin from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and SpaceX from billionaire Elon Musk.
