Virgin Galactic, the British-America spaceflight company has recently received its approval from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to fly passengers into space and commence space tourism by 2022. This is huge for the upcoming multi-million-dollar market as Virgin Galactic becomes the first company to have received such regulatory approval.
The go-ahead received by the spaceflight company will allow it to take passengers into space, for real and this marks the beginning of a new era in aviation and space tourism. As mentioned in a report by Engadget, the Federal Aviation Authority updated its already existing commercial space transportation operator license, which was kept dormant with the regulators since 2016, and finally, the light is green for Virgin Galactic to begin what it started out to do, in the first place.
According to CNBC, Virgin Galactic had to complete a 29-element verification and validation program for the Federal Aviation Authority, as mentioned in a report by Engadget. The British-American company completed the final two steps with its latest crewed spacecraft flight on May 22. On passing the 29-element test, FAA decided to upgrade the company’s existing launch license to permitting commercial space flights.
Can you imagine going into space for a weekend trip? Well, it may sound unthinkable now but by 2022, it might be a possibility. However, don’t even think about the cost of the ticket because you really don’t want to! It will definitely be an exorbitant price, you can imagine but it will be worth it after you experience weightlessness for the first time.
There are multiple possibilities for Virgin Galactic from now on and a ray of hope for other space lines to get their license as well. However, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX are some private companies that have been in this race to commercialize space tourism and Elon Musk’s SpaceX is directly aiming to colonize Mars. We don’t say that it is impossible because it is not but the project might unveil new extra-terrestrial findings.
Nevertheless, Virgin Galactic has confirmed that its spacecraft’s control systems have performed as efficiently as they expected it to. Now, the company is looking forward to testing out its remaining three test flights, one of which is expected to carry Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, a billionaire who might actually beat Jeff Bezos to be the first one to go to Space.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon is said to fly on July 20 on his Blue Origin Spacecraft with his brother and an online auction winner. The space enthusiast billionaire intends to become the first from his background to go into the Earth’s Orbit but Richard Branson might beat him, you never know.