Space Tourism Could Be the Ultimate Adventure Trip for Travel Advisors

“We have each expectation that we can be in industrial operation subsequent 12 months,” said pilot Don McKay while asked while the flights would start. The six-minute, $250,000 flights will be characteristic of an air launch, rocket-powered ascent at three and a half the speed of sound, several minutes of weightlessness, and views of the Earth’s curvature. “It is something everyone has to experience,” said Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s leader, astronaut teacher, and software supervisor, at the click convention. “I can tell you firsthand the view is stunning, being weightless and desk-bound — coming to a nonviolent prevent at altitude.”

Virgin Galactic finished the last test flight of the spacecraft in February and moved its headquarters in May to Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. The flights are to be launched. “These are each exact indicators that Virgin Galactic is getting ready to begin flights,” said Valerie Stimac, editor of the weblog Space Tourism Guide and author of Dark Skies: A Practical Guide to Astrotourism, set to be published by Lonely Planet in September. “Richard Branson has stated he’d like the launch to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, if you want to be on July 20.”

IT’S ROCKET SCIENCE

Turley, president of Alpine Travel in Saratoga, California, and Volden, president of All World Travel in Albuquerque, are also confident that the release is imminent. Both are among the 27 accredited space dealers and contributors in a program supplied with the aid of Virgin Galactic through the Virtuoso consortium that allows advisors to sell the flights after sizeable education. For Turley and Volden, this has included experiencing suborbital flight simulation at the National Aerospace Training and Research Center, journeying to the Kennedy Space Center, Spaceport America, and the Mojave Desert. Take a look at the site.

Since its introduction in 2006, an estimated seven hundred people have signed up for the flights. A star-studded list reportedly includes Tom Hanks, the overdue Stephen Hawking, and Virgin Galactic owner Sir Richard Branson. Many have continued setbacks, including the catastrophic crash that killed a pilot while a Virgin Galactic prototype rocket crashed inside the Mojave wilderness in October 2014.

Turley has numerous customers, including a family group, who placed deposits on the flights over seven years ago and are nonetheless eager to get on board. She started her self-belief and has in no way wavered and planned to take one of the flights herself. “I knew this was rocket science and might take loads to get going, truly,” she stated. “I became heartbroken by way of the crash but by no means discouraged.”

On October 31, 2014, a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo plane crashed throughout a take a look at in California, killing the co-pilot and injuring the pilot. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board blamed pilot blunders and other factors, including the Federal Aviation Administration’s lax oversight. Travel advisors must cope with that legacy as they embark on this new business.

Turley said booking a Virgin Galactic flight can not be done through a global distribution device or website, unlike dealing with different tours. The technique starts with contacting a Virgin Galactic representative in London who furnishes the journey guide with an in-depth settlement for the patron to study with an attorney. “After the customer opinions the settlement, the budget is stressed to Virgin Galactic, who does an extensive record and takes at the chaser based totally on the information we have given them,” Turley said. “We get the ball rolling, but Virgin Galactic takes over from there.”

While unique permitted area sellers are the best journey advisors allowed to ebook Virgin Galactic flights, interested space tourists can also ebook without delay by contacting Virgin Galactic. Accredited area marketers are not allowed to reveal the flight commission quantity, which, in line with Turley, “isn’t almost as an awful lot as human beings think.”

Jennifer Campbell, Virtuoso’s dealing with the director for professional improvement and agency services, advised Skift that the Accredited Space Agents program is on keep as all available flight seats were bought. “More seats will be to be had in the destiny, and we are excited about the next section of our courting at that factor,” she said.

Volden has one patron at the books, who signed on again in 2008. “He’s remained excited and engaged during the technique,” Volden stated. “We produce other customers who are involved, but Virgin Galactic has been promoted the seats on the preserve for the past couple of years. I assume we’ll see a resurgence of interest as soon as sales can be resumed.”

PERSONAL PASSION

Turley, a self-described “geeky character” whose adolescent ambition was to be a fighter pilot at some stage in a time when this becomes not an option for ladies, said being a space agent has more to do with private passion than a monetary advantage. “Those folks who have been on this from the start are virtually in the back of in income because of all that we’ve invested in schooling and promoting,” Turley stated. “No guide ought to move into this wondering they’ll get rich. Frankly, I could make more promoting global cruises or other sorts of luxury tours.”

To achieve area tourism, Turley also believes having a customer who no longer uses the handiest method but has a penchant for the excessive-stop journey is vital. “Some of my clients were already the sort who might journey to the Everest base camp or Antarctica,” she stated. Volden consents that customers with a hobby in adventure tours are probably candidates for suborbital flights. However, introduced that many additionally like the experience of being a part of something historical. “A lot of humans interested in the flights just like the idea of being a number of the first to revel in something few others have carried out, the chance to be most of the first 1,000 civilians to enter space,” he stated.