Virgin Galactic Reveals Design For Space Tourism Vehicle
Virgin Galactic unveiled the interior for its spacecraft Tuesday during a live-stream event, showcasing the vehicle that will eventually take paying customers on a tour through space. Development on SpaceShipTwo began more than 15 years ago, and it could soon be ready to provide passengers that have big enough wallets with the trip of a lifetime.
The vehicle features a mostly white interior with six teal-colored seats. Twelve windows in the cabin will provide a unique view of Earth to customers. This is the result of the cabin’s circular mirror on the aft bulkhead, which allows astronauts to see themselves weightless while illuminated by the planet’s natural brightness.
Sixteen cameras “will provide everything from the first Instagram posts to a beautifully edited and historically significant personal movie,” according to the company.
“That’s what our customers want,” Virgin Galactic chief space officer George Whitesides told CNN Business’ Rachel Crane. “To capture that whole experience [using installed cameras] was really challenging but, I think, [an] effectively done design problem.”
Tickets for SpaceShipTwo cost $250,000. Six-hundred customers have already signed up for the 90-minute journey, Whitesides told Reuters, and another 400 potential customers have shown interest.
“Providing safety without distraction, quietly absorbing periods of sensory intensity, and offering each astronaut a level of intimacy required for personal discovery and transformation,” Virginia Galactic said of its spacecraft.
It’s unknown exactly when the first trip will be scheduled. The company said last week it still must go through multiple test flights.
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