Richard Branson Foto Luke MacGregor/Reuters
According to Branson, the market situation has changed after Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, announced the termination of space tourism programs, writes Bloomberg. In these circumstances, Virgin Galactic intends to strengthen its activities and resume the sale of tickets for suborbital flights.
The key project of the company will be a new six-seat spacecraft Delta spaceplane. Its first launch is scheduled for the end of 2026. The company expects that the modernized design of the vehicle will significantly accelerate the preparation between missions.
As Branson noted, the new ship is able to make a flight, return to Earth and get ready for launch again in just two days. According to him, the company seeks to organize the production of vehicles on the principle of the aviation industry, which should increase the regularity of flights.
Earlier Virgin Galactic has already sold about 700 tickets for future Delta flights. The cost per seat was approximately 600 thousand dollars. The company expects that as the number of launches increases, the price of such trips will gradually decrease.
Virgin Galactic already has experience with commercial missions. In June 2023, the VSS Unity spaceplane performed the first commercial suborbital flight with four passengers on board. After that, the company conducted several more missions, but then temporarily suspended the program, focusing on the development of a new vehicle.
Over the past few years, space tourism has been seen as part of a rivalry between the biggest private players in the space industry, including Branson, Bezos and SpaceX founder Ilon Musk. However, the priorities of market players are gradually shifting towards larger-scale projects – lunar exploration and deep space. Against this background, Virgin Galactic expects to strengthen its position in the segment of commercial suborbital flights.
