Parabolic Arc

Virgin Galactic's VMS Eve during its third test flight in March.

AMEInfo Radio has a two-part interview ( Part 1 and Part II) with Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn. Not much new, just a few details and assertions:

• Economy is not affecting sales very much; at $200,000 apiece, you either have the money to go or you don’t;
• Just sold 3 tickets at a Grand Prix event in Bahrain;
• The experience will take require four days for the training and spaceflight;
• Unlike Soyuz orbital flights, SpaceShipTwo doesn’t require months of technical and language training (of course, you’re talking about 4-5 minutes of weightlessness vs. 12-14 days).
• Some Virgin employees will go into space as part of test flight program prior to paying passengers;
• Very interested in flying out of the Persian Gulf, where there is a lot of interest in flying (12 tickets thus far);
• United States is biggest area, but also a lot of interest in the UK;
• In some cases, the nationals of countries will be the first ones from those nations to go into space;
• In 10-15 years, space tourism will be “regularlized” with 4-5 spaceports around the world conducting flights; will carry more people into space in the first year than have gone there since 1961.