Virgin Galactic has sold about 100 tickets to space at half a million dollars each

Virgin Galactic has announced its financial results, according to the Daily Mail. Sales began back in 2005, just a year after the company was founded. Since then, 700 potential astronauts have already booked flights. The first of them paid $ 200,000- $ 250,000 for tickets, and the current price is $ 450,000 per seat. Since the founder of Virgin Galactic went into space in person in August, the company has sold about 100 more tickets. Commercial flights are due to begin next year, with 1,000 bookings planned by that time. “The demand for space travel is strong and we are selling seats ahead of schedule”, - said Virgin Galactic representatives.

Even the fact that the company has faced problems lately has not hindered its sales success. In September, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) discovered that Virgin Galactic's July flight had deviated from its intended trajectory. And last month, the company postponed a research mission with the Italian Air Force after it was discovered that some of the materials used did not meet strength standards.

Flights with Virgin Galactic are the most affordable flights on offer today. Tickets for the ten-minute journey on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin New Shepard suborbital rocket are likely to be significantly higher. In an online auction, the very first ticket was sold for $ 28 million. As for the seats on board Elon Musk's SpaceX Dragon, their predicted price is several tens of millions of dollars.