Elon Musk Booked A Future Flight On Branson’s Virgin Galactic Spacecraft
Elon Musk will be heading to space, but he is already eyeing another company’s spacecraft to get there.
The Space X founder is one of several people that have already booked a ticket for a future flight on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic’s (SPCE) space trips, according to The Sunday Times, as reported by Business Insider. The Wall Street Journal also confirmed the flight reservation by Musk.
It was unclear how far up the waiting list for a flight Musk was at the time of writing.
Branson, 70, told The Sunday Times that Musk paid $10,000 for a seat on a future Virgin Galactic spacecraft trip, but the date of the flight has not yet been set.
The Virgin Galactic founder told the news outlet that “Elon’s a friend and maybe I’ll travel on one of his ships one day,”
Branson took off with a full crew to the edge of space on the VVS Unity Virgin Galactic spacecraft on Sunday. He was the first billionaire to reach the edge space, 53.5 miles above sea level. The spacecraft took off from New Mexico in a successful launch.
I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I'm an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do https://t.co/Wyzj0nOBgX #Unity22 @virgingalactic pic.twitter.com/03EJmKiH8V
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 11, 2021
Blue Origins founder Jeff Bezos is set to fly to space on July 20 aboard the New Shepard rocket.
Branson has plans to fly tourists to the edge of space in 2022.
He told The Sunday Times that other tickets for space flights onboard the Unity spacecraft have been purchased by Tom Hanks, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga, Business Insider reported. A total of about 600 people have bought tickets from about 58 different countries, Branson confirmed to the news outlet.
Total cost of a one-hour trip on the Virgin Galactic flight costs $250,000, including training and spacesuit, Business Insider reported. The WSJ reported that Virgin Galactic has collected $80 in sales and deposits so far for future flights on its spacecraft.
At 3 a.m. the morning of the successful takeoff, Musk showed up in Branson’s kitchen to wish him “good luck” the billionaire Virgin founder posted on Twitter.
Big day ahead. Great to start the morning with a friend. Feeling good, feeling excited, feeling ready.
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 11, 2021
Watch #Unity22 launch and livestream TODAY at 7:30 am PT | 10:30 am ET | 3:30 pm BST.@virgingalactic @elonmusk https://t.co/1313b4RAKI pic.twitter.com/FRQqrQEbH8
He wrote in a post, “Great to start the morning with a friend,” along with a picture of the two space entrepreneurs.
Shares of Virgin Galactic were trading at $52.66 as of premarket hours on Monday, up $3.46, or 7.03%.
Photo: POOL / HANNIBAL HANSCHKE
