Virgin Galactic’s FIRST SPACE TOURISM FLIGHT Launching Next Year. I am Jelly Incarnate.

Goddamn, if I was a millionaire. Next year Virgin Galactic is launching their first space tourism flight, and I’d love to be up on that.

The Verge:

In addition to the announcement of Virgin Galactic’s LauncherOne, Richard Branson announced today that the company’s first space tourism flight will launch from its New Mexico spaceport next year. Speaking at the Farnborough International Airshow, Branson said that his two adult children, Holly and Sam, would join him on a 60-mile trip aboard the SpaceshipTwo next year, but he did not reveal a more specific date. Virgin reports that it has 529 passengers who have already paid $200,000 for a trip in the six-seater SpaceshipTwo, and NASA has also booked one complete flight. With the rise of space tourism, being a trained astronaut is no longer a requirement to travel into space, but there are still strict safety precautions — every passenger is required to undergo a week of training on location in New Mexico prior to their flight.

Mad jelly.