Virgin Galactic invites you into space

Reaching for the stars

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, his upcoming 2014 movie cannot agree more with the news. The first civil flight to space will take-off by the end of the year. For this, the british billionnaire Richard Branson created Virgin Galactic, a new airline that will offer orbital flights, above the stratosphere at more than 300 000 feets ! The flights will be designed to rise high enough to allow passengers to observe the curve of the planet from a unique point of view, through the window of the ship. They will also experience a few minutes of weightlessness during the landing of the spaceship.

Space travel available for all

With its futuristic aspects, almost like alien shuttles, the spaceships use the same basic technology : carbon composite. The shuttle can carry on board six passengers and two pilots. Each passenger gets the same seating position with several windows to enjoy the view in all possible positions, weightless or sitting for not miss anything. However, to get the privilege of admiring this stunning view, the queue is long behind. Some artists such as Lady Gaga or Muse have already indicated a desire to board the aircraft, and for the first time in history, a concert in a spaceship. For now, the journey's ticket is sold 250,000 $ (about 183,000 euros), and 650 people have already taken their own, according to Virgin Galactic. In a near future, the public price will be only 30 000 $ and we can bet that is will keep on decreasing. Within 10 years, it should not cost more then any airline ticket and available to many. Virgin Galactic has developped the first public spaceport to train all passengers and to ignite the shuttles. Spaceport America is a 200 millon $ projet, which construction started in 2009 and located in the middle of New-Mexico.

A whole new industry

Investors such as the British Government or Google itself are quite interested into space projects. It is a new gold mine, with thousands of jobs at stake in various fields : transportation, reality shows, fashion, museums, travel, ... The world is waiting for space travel to become mass market and available to all.