It\u2019s one small step for Virgin Galactic . . . and one giant check to write for humankind. Citizens can book commercial flights beyond the Earth’s atmosphere \u2014 90-minute, four-passenger journeys that mark the beginning of citizen space tourism.<\/p>\n
Aboard a winged spaceship attached to a mothership, Virgin Galactic astronauts will climb to 50,000 feet\u2014about 20,000 feet higher than the average commercial flight\u2014at which point the pilots will call \u201c3, 2, 1, release\u201d and jettison the mothership. (There\u2019s a metaphor about motherhood somewhere in there.) Rockets flare, and the spaceship takes off for suborbit at speeds of up to 2,600 miles per hour, or about three and a half times the speed of sound.<\/p>\n
After a one-minute burst, the rockets will go off and passengers will experience what they came all this way for: pure, magical weightlessness in microgravity and views of Earth from 17 windows. For a hospitality company like Virgin Group\u2014Branson\u2019s empire of airlines, hotels, cruises, and now, spaceships\u2014it\u2019s the epitome of a #roomwithaview. But obviously, this trip is so much more than a pretty view. \u201cYou can just\u00a0stop<\/i>. And look. And soak it in,\u201d says Beth Moses, a Virgin Galactic astronaut and chief astronaut instructor, in a testimonial. \u201cYou do get a connection to the home planet . . . on a really solid, spiritual, fundamental level that just sticks with you.\u201d<\/p>\n