Virgin Galactic ticket to space nears $500,000

Available tickets range from individual seats to a full-flight buyout, according to chief executive

Virgin Galactic are selling tickets to space for $450,000, the company announced. AFP

Inflation isn’t just climbing here on Earth. Virgin Galactic Holdings is resuming ticket sales for trips to space at a new price of $450,000 a ride.

Sales are restarting immediately and available tickets range from individual seats to a “full-flight buyout”, chief executive Michael Colglazier said on Thursday as the company reported financial results.

Virgin Galactic had charged $250,000 for each ticket, before halting sales while it continued work on its spacecraft.

The Las Cruces, New Mexico-based company is looking to build a space tourism business after a successful test flight last month with founder Richard Branson and five Virgin Galactic employees aboard. The suborbital trip lasted about an hour.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Tesla founder Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies are also working on tourism offerings of their own.