Couples intent on having an out-of-this-world honeymoon can sign up now to book their space tickets aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. Traveling at three times the speed of sound, SpaceShipTwo will achieve a maximum altitude of 360,000 feet above earth.
How much will it cost to fly Virgin Galactic? A $20,000 deposit is required on each individual $200,000 ticket (yes, the cost is, ahem, astronomical... but it is roundtrip.)
Of course, you really can't put a price on the experience of viewing earth from a gravity-free capsule, as described on the Official Virgin Galactic site:
- There is no up and no down.... After a graceful mid-space summersault, you find yourself at a large window and what you see would make your hair stand on end if the zero gravity hadn’t already achieved that effect. Below you is a view that you’ve seen in countless images but the reality is so much more beautiful, so much more vivid.
The blue map, curving into the black distance is familiar but has none of the usual marked boundaries. The incredibly narrow ribbon of atmosphere looks worryingly fragile. What you are looking at is the source of everything it means to be human, and it is home.
Fights aboard the manned SpaceShipTwo, commissioned by visionary entrepreneur Richard Branson, will initially leave from the Mojave Spaceport in California until Spaceport America heaquarters opens in New Mexico. Two pilots will accompany six astronaut passengers on each Virgin Galactic weekly flight.
At the spaceport, three days of training, including zero-gravity exercises, will be required of each passenger. But one thing you won't have to worry about is packing; the entire flight is expected to last two and one half hours.
How to Book a Virgin Galactic Flight
North American honeymooners and other adventurers can book their flight on Virgin Galactic through a Virtuoso Travel agent trained as an accredited space agent .
