Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Virgin Galactic is preparing to send its first batch of private tourists into space on Thursday morning local time. It will be the company's second commercial space flight and a long-awaited milestone for founder Richard Branson, who is seeking to establish an "Earth space route".

The suborbital launch, which will take place at the New Mexico spaceport, will put an end to nearly 20 years of development work on Virgin Galactic and finally allow Virgin Galaxy to fulfill its backlog of orders. there are about 800 people waiting to travel to space aboard the company's spacecraft. Virgin Galactic is competing with Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to sell thrill seekers a few minutes of space travel free of gravity.

Virgin Galactic's launch passengers include 80-year-old former British Olympian Jon Goodwin (Jon Goodwin) with Parkinson's disease, and mother and daughter Keisha Sf (Keisha Scff) and Anastassia Meyers (Anastatia Mayers), who won seats in a charity lottery. The crew includes two pilots and an astronaut from Virgin Galactic who provides support services.

The flight comes more than a month after Virgin Galactic finally began commercial space flight operations. The first flight, called Galactic 01, was strictly a research mission. These include three researchers from the Italian Air Force who tend to design payloads scientifically to make better use of the space microgravity environment.

Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 and initially promised to launch passengers as early as 2007. In the first days, the price of the airship was $200000, but later, due to the company's postponement, the ticket price also rose to $250000. In 2014, a space shuttle in Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight, killing one test pilot and seriously injuring another, prompting the company to suspend ticket sales.

Since then, Virgin Galaxy has experienced many successes and failures. The company's spacecraft went into space for the first time in 2018 and sent Branson into space in 2021, causing a sensation. But after that flight, Virgin Galactic chose to suspend its space mission for nearly two years because it was upgrading rockets and spacecraft. Virgin Galaxy resumed selling tickets in 2022, when ticket prices rose to $450000.

Now, Virgin Galactic needs to send a large number of booked passengers into space. But even if the company starts commercial operations, it may take years for it to turn a profit.

Virgin Galactic's main aircraft currently in flight is the VSS Unity, a space plane launched in 2016. Although VSS Unity will be used for monthly space travel, Virgin Galactic is focusing on developing a new fleet of space vehicles called the Delta class. The spacecraft are expected to be operational in 2026 and will be continuously optimized to facilitate easier refurbishment and faster launches, resulting in higher annual travel frequency.

"every time we launch a VSS Unity, we lose money," Mike Moses, president of space missions and safety at Virgin Galaxy, said in an interview in June. "but it's important not only to prove that we can do it, but also to learn from it."

Virgin Galactic is not expected to make significant revenue in the next few years. The company expects revenue of only about $1 million in each of the last two quarters of this year. Virgin Galactic estimates that if you add a research flight, the revenue may be slightly higher, because the ticket price for these missions can reach 600000 dollars.

Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galaxy, has said he believes Virgin Galactic will be profitable if the Delta spacecraft is allowed to fly to the edge of space every week.

Although Colgrazil admits that suborbital space tourism will be a "limited business" for some time, he hopes that as more private tourists are sent into space, it will encourage more customers to sign up.

"We need to normalize the industry," Mr. Colgrazil said. "it's very rare for your neighbors to travel to space, but as we send more people into space, it will become normal."

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