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posted by martyb on Sunday August 18 2019, @10:21PM   Printer-friendly
from the Where-is-the-line-for-TSA? dept.

Virgin Galactic unveils luxury lounge at its airport for space tourism

Richard Branson's space tourism startup, Virgin Galactic, is showing off a luxurious lounge area and top-shelf amenities for its wealthy clientele. The company on Thursday shared images of the interior at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Ticket holders, most of whom paid $200,000 or more for a Virgin Galactic flight, will one day congregate at the spaceport before they board a supersonic plane for a 90-minute ride into the upper atmosphere.

The renovations are another sign that Virgin Galactic is preparing to open for business at Spaceport America, a controversial facility that was built a decade ago using local taxpayer dollars. Images of the first-floor lounge area show a large coffee bar made of "back-lit Italian marble hovering above hand-crafted oak," according to a press release. Modern couches line the floor-to-ceiling windows at the spaceport with panoramic views of the surrounding desert. Other new facilities include a mission control center, a working area for pilots, and a briefing center.

Hundreds of people are lined up to ride a short high-speed trip aboard a Virgin Galactic space plane. Branson, who founded the venture in 2004, plans to be the first tourist aboard a Virgin Galactic space plane. The company said it has additional test flights planned and will be ready to start flying paying customers in the first half of 2020.

Also at TechCrunch.

Older article: Virgin Galactic prepares to move vehicles, staff to Spaceport America

Related: Virgin Galactic: Rocket Reaches Space Again in Test Flight (Update)


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  • (Score: 2) by black6host on Monday August 19 2019, @12:19AM (3 children)

    by black6host (3827) on Monday August 19 2019, @12:19AM (#881899) Journal

    I suppose that either a) Space travel will only be a luxury that really, really rich people will ever be able to afford or b) when leaving the planet is the only option for the survival of mankind that Space travel will only be a luxury that the really, really rich people will ever be able to afford.

    Sorry, a bit of my cynicism showing through there. We didn't get to the moon or all the other things we've done in the name of exploration other than anything but plain old hard work and dedication. By all involved. It's really hard to get worked up about a "luxurious lounge area and top-shelf amenities "

    On a humorous note I think the last thing we need in space is a bunch of drunk space tourists that couln't handle the top-shelf stuff :) Perhaps I'll write a song about that...

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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @12:29AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @12:29AM (#881903)

    I suppose that either a) Intercontinental travel will only be a luxury that really, really rich people will ever be able to afford or b) when leaving the continent is the only option for survival that Intercontinental travel will only be a luxury that the really, really rich people will ever be able to afford.

    Sorry, a bit of my cynicism showing through there. We didn't get to Africa or all the other places we've been in the name of exploration other than anything but plain old hard work and dedication. By all involved. It's really hard to get worked up about a "luxurious lounge area and top-shelf amenities "

    On a humorous note I think the last thing we need in other continents is a bunch of drunk intercontinental tourists that can't handle the top-shelf stuff :) Perhaps I'll write a song about that...

    It's utterly absurd to consider that a normal person will ever be able to afford to charter a ship, at least without selling themselves into indentured servitude for many years. Sure physics permits far cheaper intercontinental travel, but we'll never be able to actually realize that.

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday August 19 2019, @01:12AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday August 19 2019, @01:12AM (#881915) Journal

    Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin New Shepard will offer reasonably cheap suborbital space tourism. For some definitions of reasonable.

    It will take massive fully reusable rockets like SpaceX's Starship to really knock $/kg down and get people into orbit or beyond.

    The goal is to get people to Mars at around $100k to $500k per person. Many people would be able to sell their home, pay the ticket price, and have money left over for getting their own Mars home built.

    Now you will definitely have people who regret doing that, because Mars is shit compared to Earth, but out of billions of people, tens of thousands of ordinary (not rich by U.S. standards) people will be both willing and financially able to go.

    Starship ticket prices to the ISS or space hotels in Earth orbit should be considerably cheaper than a Mars trip (which will likely include a free return trip BTW), especially if no in-orbit refueling is needed (no Starship tankers launched along with the rocket you're on).

    Then there's a possibility of using Starship for suborbital, fast intercontinental flights. This might be a tough sell if you factor in the usual TSA nonsense and a need to have the landing zone miles offshore from a major city. 20-30 minute flight sounds great, but you might have 4 hours of junk tacked on.

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    • (Score: 2) by black6host on Monday August 19 2019, @02:28AM

      by black6host (3827) on Monday August 19 2019, @02:28AM (#881927) Journal

      Alright... After reading your post I decided that the cheaper we could make the flights so that we get not just the 1% but perhaps the 10% to fly their asses to Mars.... I can see the wisdom in that :)