Virgin Galactic has ramped up its ticket prices for trips to suborbital space to $750,000 (£568,000) per person ahead of plans to relaunch commercial flights in the autumn.
Founded over 20 years ago by Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic’s price for early adopters was a comparatively low $200,000 until 2013. Since then, it has been creeping up, costing $600,000 between 2023 and 2025 and now $750,000 for a seat on the new Delta Class fleet.
Despite its long history, Virgin Galactic has only flown an estimated 23 paying customers to space since its founding and around 60 overall including researchers and service personnel. Its VSS Unity spacecraft only completed 12 spaceflights before it was retired in 2024, leading to a lengthy period of downtime for the service.
VSS Unity was considered more of a prototype vehicle that would serve as a proof of concept. The Delta Class, set to launch later this year, is built using modular parts, allowing Virgin Galactic to make quick repairs and build out...