BELOW SUPERNAV drop zone ⇩

GALLERY: Virgin Galactic unveils space plane’s cabin, poised for commercial flights

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

MAIN AREA TOP drop zone ⇩

maylen

https://digital-stage.newsnationnow.com/

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241114185800

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241115200405

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241118165728

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241118184948

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Billionaire Richard Branson’s space tourism firm Virgin Galactic revealed the interior of its centerpiece space plane on Tuesday, showing off a cabin with new custom seats and a “space mirror” in a virtual tour of what its passengers can expect to experience on flights to the edge of space.

For $250,000 a ticket, passengers who have signed up for the suborbital flight aboard the air-launched plane VSS Unity will strap into six tailored, teal-colored seats and peer out of the cabin’s 12 circular windows as they ascend some 60 miles above Earth. The plane has five other windows up front.

“We have amazing seats that will be tailored to each person, and that move during the flight to maximize people’s comfort,” Virgin Galactic Chief Space Officer George Whitesides told Reuters, adding that passengers can unbuckle themselves at peak altitude to float around the cabin in zero-gravity conditions.

The company has 600 customers signed up to fly and more than 400 more who have expressed interest, Whitesides said. It has not set a firm date for its first commercial space flight, with its British founder Branson expected to be aboard.

The cabin, revealed in a virtual-reality headset the company provided to journalists and paying customers, also features a large, circular mirror “to allow our customers to see themselves in space in a way that has really never been done before,” Whitesides said.

The plane, attached to a bigger carrier plane, is intended to take off from the company’s New Mexico spaceport and detach mid-air to launch further toward the edge of space in a trip lasting 90 minutes.

Virgin Galactic is on track to clear its final testing milestones to obtain a commercial operating license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration after it conducts “a small number of flights” carrying four test passengers, Whitesides told a news briefing.

Whitesides said Virgin Galactic may temporarily increase ticket prices from $250,000 in the future but hopes someday to make the experience more affordable to “as many people as possible.”

Virgin Galactic went public in October after merging with Social Capital Hedosophia, the special-purpose acquisition vehicle run by early Facebook Inc. executive and venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya.

Tech

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Site Settings Survey

 

MAIN AREA MIDDLE drop zone ⇩

Trending on NewsNation

AUTO TEST CUSTOM HTML 20241119133138

MAIN AREA BOTTOM drop zone ⇩

tt

KC Chiefs parade shooting: 1 dead, 21 shot including 9 kids | Morning in America

Witness of Chiefs parade shooting describes suspect | Banfield

Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting: Mom of 2 dead, over 20 shot | Banfield

WWE star Ashley Massaro 'threatened' by board to keep quiet about alleged rape: Friend | Banfield

Friend of WWE star: Ashley Massaro 'spent hours' sobbing after alleged rape | Banfield

Sunny

la

69°F Sunny Feels like 69°
Wind
6 mph SW
Humidity
27%
Sunrise
Sunset

Tonight

Clear to partly cloudy. Low 47F. Winds light and variable.
47°F Clear to partly cloudy. Low 47F. Winds light and variable.
Wind
2 mph NNE
Precip
11%
Sunset
Moon Phase
Waning Gibbous