Virgin Galactic, which last year flew its flamboyant founder Richard Branson to space, will reopen ticket sales to the general public starting Wednesday, for the sum of $450,000.
Previously, only people who had paid a deposit to be on a waiting list could buy new tickets — but now sales are once more open to everyone.
“We plan to have our first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year, providing an incredibly strong foundation as we begin regular operations and scale our fleet,” said chief executive Michael Colglazier in a statement.
Established in 2004, Virgin Galactic is looking to build on the success of a high-profile test mission last July, during which Mr Branson beat Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos in their billionaire space race by a few days.
But Virgin has not flown since then. In October, it announced it was entering an “enhancement period” to make safety upgrades to its fleet and pushed back a planned test flight with the Italian Air Force to this year.
Its target to fly its first paying individual customers towards the end of 2022 puts it behind its competition in the nascent space tourism sector — Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX — which have already flown commercial passengers.
Blue Origin's suborbital rockets have now carried out three crewed flights with customers and guests, though the price is thought to be significantly higher.
Privately held Blue Origin and SpaceX have not revealed their exact ticket costs, unlike publicly traded Virgin Galactic, which is required to be more transparent.
Virgin's space flights launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
A large carrier aircraft takes off horizontally, gains high altitude and drops a rocket-powered spaceplane that soars into space at Mach-3 before gliding back to Earth.
The total journey time is 90 minutes, with passengers experiencing a few minutes of weightlessness in the spaceplane's cabin, from where they can also observe the Earth's curvature through 17 windows.
As of last November, the company said it had sold 700 tickets. The current fare, which includes a $150,000 deposit, is well above the $200,000-$250,000 paid by the roughly 600 customers on the wait list from 2005 to 2014.
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Evacuations to France hit by controversy
- Over 500 Gazans have been evacuated to France since November 2023
- Evacuations were paused after a student already in France posted anti-Semitic content and was subsequently expelled to Qatar
- The Foreign Ministry launched a review to determine how authorities failed to detect the posts before her entry
- Artists and researchers fall under a programme called Pause that began in 2017
- It has benefited more than 700 people from 44 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Iran, and Sudan
- Since the start of the Gaza war, it has also included 45 Gazan beneficiaries
- Unlike students, they are allowed to bring their families to France
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7 — Michael Schumacher (1994, ’95, 2000, ’01 ’02, ’03, ’04)
7 — Lewis Hamilton (2008, ’14,’15, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20)
5 — Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57)
4 — Alain Prost (1985, ’86, ’89, ’93)
4 — Sebastian Vettel (2010, ’11, ’12, ’13)
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
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The years Ramadan fell in May
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Business Insights
- Canada and Mexico are significant energy suppliers to the US, providing the majority of oil and natural gas imports
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