Journey

Space tourism

Well 16 months after the crash of the spacecraft “SpaceShipTwo” the air carrier Virgin Galactic, a successor presented. In two years, could be the first tourists in order to stand out.

In front of selected guests was company founder Richard Branson in a Hangar in Mojave (California), the new Raumflugzeug. His granddaughter christened the plane with a milk bottle in the name of “Unity”.

Now start the testing phase, at the end of the first commercial Raumfahrprogramm the history of mankind will stand, said company founder Richard Branson. As soon as possible, 2018, and “Unity” tourists into space, where passengers in around 100 kilometers height is six minutes of weightlessness to experience as well as an exclusive view of the blue planet earth.

The new spaceship, which, since 2012, built and tested, similar to severely its predecessor “SpaceShipTwo”. It was on 31. October 2014 during a test flight over the Mojave desert in the US state of California has crashed. It was a Pilot killed and another was seriously injured. Branson had already on the day after the accident, stresses that he will, in spite of the “terrible setback” to his plans for private space tourism hold.

Hundreds of prospects have a trip already reserved and a Deposit on the expected ticket price of $ 250,000 (roughly € 200,000). On the waiting list according to media reports, celebrities like Hawking, Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio and the canadian pop singer, Justin Bieber.

at / is (afp)