Virgin Galactic Reopens Space Ticket Sales At $450,000 Per Seat

Virgin Galactic says it's re-opening ticket sales for the first time in years, giving anyone who can afford it the chance to reserve a seat on the company's rocket-powered suborbital space plane for $450,000, a significant markup over what tickets were previously sold for, Jackie Wattles reported for CNN.

Photo Insert: VSS Unity's Third Powered Flight

The news comes after Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson took a supersonic joy ride aboard the space plane after more than a decade of pledging to be among the first to test out the technology, and the company now says it's prepared to begin commercial operations in 2022.

Virgin Galactic says it will have three offerings: single-seat reservations (which will begin at $450,000), multi-seat reservations for families and friends, and an option to buy out all six seats on a given flight for a "modest premium," CEO Michael Colglazier told investors during an earnings call Thursday.

Seats for "microgravity research and professional astronaut training" will be priced at $600,000 each, he said.

The tickets will be offered first to a "list of early hand-raisers," or people who joined the company's so-called "Spacefarer Community" by putting down a $1,000 deposit in recent months.

About 1,000 people have put up the cash for such a deposit, according to Aleanna Crane, Virgin Galactic's vice president of communications.

Virgin Galactic also previously announced that it would raffle off two seats on SpaceShipTwo to people who donate to Space For Humanity, a non-profit with the stated goal of helping to "democratize space."

The company revealed during an investor call that more than 125,000 people from 190 countries have donated.

WEEKLY FEATURE : PAL READY TO SOAR WITH PANDEMIC