(New York) The space tourism company Virgin Galactic announced Monday that it has sold since August about 100 tickets for a trip to space at 450,000 dollars each.
It had previously sold, in all, about 600 reservations for a price between 200,000 and 250,000 dollars.
The new price “has been well received,” said the company in a press release, recalling the goal of selling 1,000 tickets before the launch of the first commercial flight at the end of 2022.
“We are entering a period of fleet improvement with a clear roadmap to increase the durability, reliability and predictability of our commercial service aircraft over the next year,” said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin. Galactic, in a statement.
“The demand for space travel is strong and we are selling seats faster than we expected,” he added.
The founder of his company, British entrepreneur Richard Branson, was on July 11 the first billionaire to go to space aboard the spacecraft of a private company that he himself created – before Jeff Bezos on a device from Blue Origin a few days later.
But the Virgin Galactic spacecraft was temporarily grounded by US authorities in September following an incident during this flight, the craft having briefly flown outside the airspace authorized for the mission.
Virgin Galactic has also postponed its first commercial flight by one quarter to mid-October, now scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2022, time to strengthen the security of the devices.
The company confirmed Monday “to be on track” for that date.
The competition between billionaires for space tourism is raging, from Richard Branson to Jeff Bezos, including Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, which in September sent four space tourists for three days around the Earth.
Virgin Galactic ensures that it still has nearly a billion dollars in liquidity to finance its operations, until they become profitable.
In the third quarter, the company recorded a net loss of $ 48 million, less than the 92 million lost over the same period in 2020.