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Space travel gets cheaper with Virgin
Published on Fri, Sep 29, 2006 at 13:07, Updated on Fri, Sep 29, 2006 at 13:35 in Sci-Tech section
Tags: Space, Travel , New Dellhi
New Dellhi: On September 18 Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari became the first woman space tourist when she took off on a Russian rocket. However, she reportedly paid $20 million for the trip.
With space tourism gaining in popularity it also seems like it is all set to get cheaper.
The Virgin Group has come up with a prototype space ship for which you can buy a ticket into space for a much cheaper price.
British Airline mogul and founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson has unveiled a prototype spaceship that could bring down the price of space travel to just 1 per cent of what it costs now.
However, that would still be hefty $200, 0000 per ticket.
"Literally it's going to be an out of earth experience. We hope to enable millions of people to go into space in an affordable manner,” Branson says.
Once operational, the Virgin Galactic spaceship will carry six passengers and two pilots.
During the two and a half hour space flight the passengers are expected to experience weightlessness as they enter zero gravity.
For the first group of passengers it shall be a dream come true, as Alan Watts, part of the first group of passengers to be on spaceship says,” Just sitting here thinking that I'll be in one of these seats in two or three year's time is just fantastic. I am really excited about it."
More than 200 people have already signed up for a trip on Virgin Galactic and 65 thousand more have registered as potential passengers.
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