Soon Musk can do it cheaper.
$450K and it’s mostly for “atmosphere”. What are they serving, filet of starfish (cough)?
$450,000! Do they offer a Senior Citizen Discount 🧐
These pioneer space tourists are taking huge, immeasurable risks.
Some day, space tourism will be as safe as commercial airlines.
But, not today.
Can I ride jump seat?
The VSS Unity is the same design that Burt Rutan used to win the 2004 Ansari X-Prize. It’s “shuttlecock” configuration allows it to re-enter the atmosphere slow enough that there’s no need for heat shielding. And the parasite launch method is less costly (per launch) and also far less finicky about weather at launch-time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSS_Unity
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansari_X_Prize