Sir Richard Branson’s space-flight company, Virgin Galactic, has been making noise in the media by promoting space tourism as a viable dream for people for a few years now. It’s about to become a reality, soon. The company announced on Tuesday that ticket sales for flights will launch for the general public. This once-in- a- lifetime opportunity of being a space tourist is now open for people who want to go to space. 

Here’s information that will boggle your mind though. Booking a 90-minute space jaunt is as simple as going to virgingalactic.com and starting the application process. You’ll need a $150,000 deposit for a $450,000 trip. That means 1,000 customers generate $450 million in sales to Virgin, Branson’s giant empire—though Wall Street projects the company will generate only about $8 million in 2022. It will definitely take a while to get the scale to send 1,000 tourists on board this journey to space.

When we say ‘general public’, we genuinely mean ‘insanely wealthy’. If we just did the maths, the flights last 90 minutes and cost about US $450,000, which works out at US$5,000 every minute – or US$83 a second.

In case you were in any doubt, let’s just remind you that it is a return ticket. Taking off from Virgin’s Spaceport in New Mexico. Passengers can experience mind-blowing views of the blue planet through the ship’s 17 huge windows and a few exhilarating minutes of living in zero gravity. 

Branson himself did the trip last year, yet it’s the second time that Virgin Galactic made its space offer open to the general public. In 2014, they had launched with the same motive. However due to an unforeseen deadly crash, operations couldn’t resume.

If space travel is up your alley, head over to find out more on the official Virgin Galactic website. Also, let us know what you think about this space travel initiative by Richard Branson in the comments.