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Where do you expect to run into your favorite billionaires and Hollywood superstars while on vacation this year? British Virgin Islands, Bora Bora, Aspen? How about French delights on the Côte d’Azur? No, when it comes to exclusive destinations for the rich and famous – the place is now.
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For well-heeled travelers, space isn’t the last frontier, it’s just the next frontier. As of July 2021, when Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic makes its first passenger space flight, the possibility of traveling to this dream destination becomes a very real possibility for the wealthy.
“Imagine a world where people of all ages, all backgrounds, from any place, any gender, any ethnicity have equal access to space,” Branson told TechCrunch after being touched. “Welcome to the dawn of the new space age!”
Space travel remains very expensive
But it will be a while before people of different backgrounds get the chance to go into space. Branson’s Virgin Galactic began taking a $150,000 deposit for a $450,000 90-minute slot in February of this year. According to The Street, more than 8,000 people reserved a spot just days after the announcement.
As The Washington Post reported last year, a weeklong trip to the International Space Station costs about $55 million. Houston-based Axiom Space – which handles training as well as all flight preparation and costs – said it has booked four flights aboard Elon Musk’s SpaceX ship Crew Dragon over the next few years.
Mook invested heavily in the passenger space travel program in 1998. It aims to make 1,000 stars by 2050, Science Focus reports. On August 4, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin announced the completion of the sixth human spaceflight and the 22nd space mission of the New Shepard program.
Space tourism is a long-term growth industry, experts suggest
In an investor note last May, Canaccord Genuity’s Ken Herbert and Austin Moeller rated Virgin Galactic Holdings a “buy,” believing the long-term prosperity of space tourism and predicting the market could reach $8 billion by 2030.
The Washington Post quoted Herbert and Moller as saying, “We believe the life-changing experience and value of traveling to the edge of the cosmos is like no other.” “And there are probably many single-digit millionaires willing to contribute a large portion of their wealth to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime space odyssey.”
Other agencies are excited about the potential for equal opportunity for civilians that space travel could eventually provide. In the year After the tragic events surrounding the Challenger disaster in 1986, NASA seemed to be fully committed to opening up services and support for passenger space travel.
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As The Washington Post reported last year, Kathy Lueders, head of NASA’s Human Space Flight Office, shared Branson’s passion for the future of accessible passenger space travel.
“That’s the dream, isn’t it?” Luders said in a press conference at the time. “That space is not just for NASA, and I think that’s what we’re trying to do. Our goal is to get as many people in space as possible, so it opens up opportunities for all of us.
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