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Step 1: You are there!
As a Virtuoso travel advisers and accredited space agent, I am one of the first in the world endorsed to reserve seats on Virgin Galactic spaceflights, due to launch in 2010. Visit our dedicated website for more information by clicking here
Virgin Galactic is the world’s first ever venture into space tourism, giving you the groundbreaking opportunity to be one of the first ever space tourists.
Step 2: Put down your deposit
The cost of the flight is US$200,000 - consider it the price of a chance to make history. Deposits and seat assignments vary depending on your flight priority. There are three deposit options available:
A) Founders: will be on the first 100 commercial seats. They will be world’s first private astronauts who will be in the vanguard of a new industry. ** SOLD OUT**
B) Pioneers: will gain their Virgin Galactic astronaut wings after Founders. Comprising 350 to 400 individuals, all of whom can expect to be amongst the first 500 humans in space and to fly within our first year of operation. Deposits: full $200,000.
Seats 1-199 ** SOLD OUT**
Seats 200-500 ($150,000 deposit) ** Limited number remain**
Seats will be sold on a first come, first served basis.
C) Voyagers: are those who share an enthusiasm for private space travel but who are less concerned about being amongst the first to go. There is a 10% deposit.
Step 3: Bragging Rights
Fewer then 500 people have ever gone into space to date...EVER. You’ll be joining lofty ranks regardless of seat assignment. Once you’ve been confirmed you’ll receive a welcome pack, gift, and insider updates including invitations to exclusive events.
Step 4: Be Patient
This is not a race, says Burt Rutan, founder of the aerospace company that built Virgin Galactic’s mother ships and spaceships. Commercial flight will not commence until rigorous safety checks and test flights have been met. Such test flight are set to begin the first quarter of 2010 and if all goes well, commercial flights may begin by 2012.
Step 5: Participate in preflight training
Though there’s no age limit (the oldest customer is 84), passengers must undergo medical exams to assess their fitness to fly. At the three-day astronaut experience at Spaceport America in New Mexico, you’ll be issued a Philippe Starck-designed space suit, undergo g-force and possibly weightlessness training, and learn more about your mission.
Step 6: Prepare for takeoff
While friends and family await your return in the spaceport’s lounge, you’ll board the sleek spaceship with five fellow passengers and two pilots. Don’t worry - every seat has a window view. The spaceship is berthed to the EVE mother ship (named for Branson’s mother), a twin-boom jet airplane made of 100% carbon composite material. After takeoff you’ll fly 50,000 feet and hear a countdown. When the spaceship releases and its hybrid rocket motor fires up, it will accelerate into a vertical climb; in ten seconds you’ll reach Mach 1 (the speed of sound) and in 30 seconds you’ll be at Mach 3.4 (literally faster than a speeding bullet! After 90 seconds the pilots will cut the motor and the spaceship will continue to climb to its peak altitude of 360,000 feet - 68 miles above Earth!
Step 7: Enjoy the view
Six miles above the space border, you’ll experience total silence - and zero g - floating weightlessly throughout the cabin for the next four to five minutes. Through the windows look back at Earth and see our planet’s curvature meeting the total blackness of space. Astronauts report humbling awe and a sense of responsibility as the comprehend the frailty of the thin blue line that is our atmosphere and the magnitude of our universe.
Step 8: Return to you seats - and an entirely new perspective
Pointing back toward Earth, the spaceship embarks on a thrilling 90-second reentry, peaking at nearly 6 gs. The spaceship’s wings, which have been neatly “feathered” up throughout the flight, will rotate back to their usual position to glide you safely back to Earth to collect your astronaut wings.
One thing is certain: You will exit the spacecraft a changed person.
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