{"id":96631,"date":"2021-12-08T12:29:29","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T06:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveltriangle.com\/blog\/?p=96631"},"modified":"2025-01-22T10:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T05:05:11","slug":"virgin-galactic-to-initiate-space-tourist-expeditions-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveltriangle.com\/blog\/virgin-galactic-to-initiate-space-tourist-expeditions-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic Will Soon Be Making Space Tourism A Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to the successful glide test of Virgin Galactic spacecraft the VSS Unity last week, it looks like the company will be keeping their promise of operating their first space tourist expeditions later this year<\/strong>. “The test pushed Unity’s atmospheric capabilities hard, touching top-end glide speeds as pilots Mark ‘Forger’ Stucky and Michael ‘Sooch’ Masucci completed a busy test card,” the company officials said in an interview.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the 11th of February 2026, the VSS Unity was released from its mothership over the Mojave Desert at an altitude of 50,000 feet. The spacecraft then began its steep descent, accelerating to Mach 0.9 to test its flight<\/strong> performance<\/strong>, stability<\/strong>, and control<\/strong> before safely<\/strong> landing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"virgin<\/div>\n

Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n

“At this stage of the glide flight programme, each flight is essentially a dry run for rocket-powered test flights,” the Virgin Galactic put forth in an update.<\/p>\n

Success hasn\u2019t come easy to Virgin Galactic. This successful test flight has happened three years after a pilot was killed in a fatal crash during a test flight in the Mojave. It took around two years post that agonising event for the Federal Aviation Administration to re-issue a commercial operating license to the company. But surely, VG has turned things around dramatically!<\/p>\n

Owing to this victory the company is \u2018on-time\u2019<\/strong> to reach founder Richard Branson’s goal of being on a suborbital test flight by the month of April. This signifies that in the next few months, the Virgin Galactic will be able to add elements to each test flight so as to give passengers a fancy feeling of being part of a space exploration programme. In fact, commercial flights are expected to commence by the end of this year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"virgin<\/div>\n

Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n

But what kind of space exploration trip will it be and where will it take people? Well, the spacecraft is designed to carry six customers<\/strong> and two pilots<\/strong>. The passengers will be given a 2.5-hour experience<\/strong> including a six-minute session of weightlessness<\/strong> and the ability to view the Earth’s curvature from space<\/strong>. Awesome, right?<\/p>\n

How much will it cost? A round-trip ticket aboard the VSS Unity spacecraft will cost $250,000<\/strong> (1.6 crores). Bookings have already started and some celebrities including Stephen<\/strong> Hawking<\/strong>, Ashton<\/strong> Kutcher<\/strong>, Leonardo<\/strong> DiCaprio<\/strong>, and Justin<\/strong> Bieber<\/strong> have already reserved themselves a seat for a voyage into space. Who\u2019s next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to the successful glide test of Virgin Galactic spacecraft the VSS Unity last week, it looks like the company will be keeping their promise of operating their first space tourist expeditions later this year. “The test pushed Unity’s atmospheric capabilities hard, touching top-end glide speeds as pilots Mark ‘Forger’ Stucky and Michael ‘Sooch’ Masucci completed a busy test card<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":96649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,23],"tags":[9817,343,1837,264,4106,402,378],"coauthors":[170],"class_list":{"0":"post-96631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-trending","9":"tag-leaderboardads","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-referral-popup","12":"tag-showform","13":"tag-space-travel","14":"tag-travel-story","15":"tag-trending"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVirgin Galactic Will Start Space Tourism By The End Of 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Space tourism will soon be a reality. After a successful test flight of its VSS Unity spacecraft last week, the Virgin Galactic is all set to launch the first space tourist expeditions by the end of 2026.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/traveltriangle.com\/blog\/virgin-galactic-to-initiate-space-tourist-expeditions-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virgin Galactic Will Start Space Tourism By The End Of 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Space tourism will soon be a reality. After a successful test flight of its VSS Unity spacecraft last week, the Virgin Galactic is all set to launch the first space tourist expeditions by the end of 2026.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/traveltriangle.com\/blog\/virgin-galactic-to-initiate-space-tourist-expeditions-this-year\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/saxenakanika\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-08T06:59:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-22T05:05:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/img.traveltriangle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/virgin-galactic-vss-unity-space-cover-picture.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kanika Saxena\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Virgin Galactic Will Start Space Tourism By The End Of [year]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Space tourism will soon be a reality. After a successful test flight of its VSS Unity spacecraft last week, the Virgin Galactic is all set to launch the first space tourist expeditions by the end of [year].\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/KS_TravelNLive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kanika Saxena\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Virgin Galactic Will Start Space Tourism By The End Of 2026","description":"Space tourism will soon be a reality. 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