Elon Musk will soon fly to space. The billionaire has purchased a ticket to ride on Virgin Galactic’s space flight. Virgin Galactic is owned by Richard Branson. Musk owns SpaceX. Branson took a flight to space on July 11. He became the first person to fly to space in his own company’s rocket ship. He is also the second septuagenarian in the world to achieve this feat. His space visit came just ahead of Jeff Bezos. Bezos owns Blue Origin. All three aerospace firms are racing to make space tourism a reality. Bezos will take a flight to space on July 20, commemorating the 52nd anniversary of Apollo 11’s landing on the Moon. This will be the maiden crewed flight of Blue Origin.
Musk has paid USD 250,000 to buy a ticket to ride on Virgin Galactic’s space flight. He bought a ticket even before Richard Branson’s July 11 flight. According to Virgin Galactic, the company has sold around 600 tickets for a ride on SpaceShipTwo. It is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane. It has been designed especially for space tourism. The company has claimed to collect nearly USD 80 million in sales from tickets for space visits. It said that tickets have been sold for USD 250,000 each. It, however, remains unclear how far Musk is on the waiting list for a seat on Virgin Galactic’s space flight. Branson has welcomed the move. He said that Musk is a good friend of his. The billionaire said that he will travel on one of Musk’s space ships one day. Both Branson and Musk are known to share a cordial bond.
Branson’s historic flight to space has made space tourism a reality. It has opened the doors for humans to travel to space. Branson and three others had touched the edge of space and landed safely back to Earth. It was the company’s 22nd flight and the first with a full crew. The flight climbed 86 km above the surface of Earth. It is the same point from where space begins. They experienced minutes of weightlessness. The company plans to test two more flights this year. It will start commercial operations from early next year. Virgin Galactic wants to fly 400 flights in space every year. Blue Origin’s launch will be different from that of Virgin Galactic’s. The company will launch its rocket from the ground. It will climb to an altitude of 108 km.
