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“We are here to make space travel accessible to everyone,” Branson said last week after his first flight.
On this flight, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 86 kilometers and the passengers experienced a state of weightlessness. As Branson’s own example shows, age was not an obstacle to enjoying images of space travel. The British billionaire turned 71 this year.
It is announced that the first people to make reservations for Virgin Galactic flights can expect to take off into space starting in 2022. The company announces that after paying the price of the ticket, travelers will also receive a gift: a free flight suit that they can take home.
Photo by Success Stars International / Richard Branson
210 thousand today is the lowest amount that can be touched in space. Another American company, SpaceX, also sells exciting tourist travel packages. Its price is much higher: about 55 million. USD, but the service is also more impressive. After paying, wealthy tourists will be able to spend eight days on the International Space Station (ISS).
From 2001 to 2009 Tourist flights to TKS were carried out in a Russian Soyuz capsule. He was accompanied by two astronauts and tourists, who paid 20 to 35 million for the place. AMERICAN DOLLAR. Activity was discontinued after the United States closed its Shuttle program. For more than a decade, Soyuz has been the only way for crews to get to TKS. Since American astronauts have been flying to TKS since last year in a spacecraft made by SpaceX, Roskosmos intends to reallocate the vacancies to space tourists.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ aviation company Blue Origin will soon join the race. The New Shepard spacecraft will make its debut flight with a crew of four. J. Bezos himself will sit in the capsule. A seat on this flight costs $ 28 million. AMERICAN DOLLAR.
Such a trip is not available to everyone.
It is believed that in the future, with the entry of more players in the new market, space tourism services could become cheaper. However, the cheapest alternative to touching space today would be a Virgin Galactic flight that costs the 211,000 already mentioned. euros.
Perhaps Branson hopes to reduce the cost of such flights to the point where they are available to much of the planet’s population, but today this amount is still “cosmic” for the average person. However, it can also be talked about in more mundane terms.
Today’s space ticket price would be equal to nine new standard Volkswagen Passat cars, which, according to the AutoTyrimai company, consistently appear as one of the most popular car brands among Lithuanians.
Although seeing the blue balloon with your own eyes would be an unforgettable event that many tourists would like to experience, considering, for example, the weekly vacation packages offered by Lithuanian travel agencies on the Spanish island of Tenerife, it can be estimated that on average it is possible to spend about 243 weeks or about 4.67 years.
Lithuania Ober-Haus (OHBI) Apartment Price Index 2021 According to June data, the price of a 1 square meter apartment in Vilnius today reaches 1871 euros. So if you have 211 thousand available. euros and you don’t want to spend them on a space flight, you could buy them a 112.7 square meter flat, of course, if you find one. Of course, you can also settle for two smaller apartments of 56.3 square meters.
A ticket for the Vilnius-Klaipeda or Klaipeda-Vilnius I class train ticket will cost you between 21.10 and 25 euros. So for the price of a space ticket, you could earn from 8.44 thousand. up to 10 thousand. travel by train to the seashore or to the capital. If you took a round trip, which takes about four hours, twice a day, you could drive from one end of Lithuania to the other for 11.5 years.
The cost of a flight into space can also be compared to a much more common but pinch-like alternative, a hot air balloon flight.
It is interesting that R. Branson himself flew in a balloon when in 2013. he visited Lithuania.
A Virgin Galaxy ticket for an adult could change an average of 1,834 hours in a hot air balloon gondola by purchasing services from various Lithuanian service providers. That is more than 76 days. Unfortunately, it would not be possible to ascend into space: the record height of hot air balloons is 21,027 km, it was reached in 2005. Lithuanian record: more than 10 kilometers, reached in 2006.
Finally, it will not be easy to buy such a service, even if you give up harmful habits. After a pack of the most expensive filtered cigarettes, which costs a person 4.2 euros a day, a smoker must not smoke for 137 years to collect the amount necessary to quit. However, this shouldn’t be a reason not to quit – non-smokers statistically live longer, so maybe that person will manage to get times when space tickets will cost significantly cheaper.
Who will be the first Lithuanian in space?
Branson founded his company Virgin Galactic in 2004 and during that time attracted those interested in booking flights on his spacecraft.
Last week, it was announced that 600 people from 60 countries had already booked tickets for Virgin Galactic flights. After a successful flight, both the number of tourists and its geography could have expanded even more. If there are already Lithuanians among these wealthy people, it is still possible to speculate: the lists are not public, so they can only boast about them.
Admittedly, if there are, we probably won’t be able to officially call them astronauts or astronauts. In reality, the Earth’s atmosphere is gradually thinning, so there is no significant sensory difference between, for example, 98 km of the earth’s surface and 99 km. However, from the 100 km limit, the so-called Kármán line begins, officially marking the beginning of “space”. The International Aeronautical Association recognizes as astronauts only those who have crossed this threshold. The Virgin Galactic spacecraft flew below this limit during testing.
Photo by Luke April / 15min / Vladas Lašas
Vladas Lašas, founder of the country and founder of UPS Urgent Shipment, has been laconic in several interviews about the fact that it would be interesting to become a space tourist. He knows Richard Branson personally, on his initiative and at the invitation of the British billionaire in 2013. He visited Lithuania.
As we have already written, Lithuanians were offered to reach the space limit in 2002, when the retail chain IKI organized a “Space Odyssey” contest. The winning Kėdainiai controller theoretically reached a height of 100 km with the Xerus spacecraft built at that time. The trip was supposed to be organized by the Space Adventures company, which has been operating until now, but the flight did not take place due to the lack of technical preparation of the organizers.
Furthermore, the winner, who was raising a newborn daughter at the time, decided, in consultation with the family, to opt for a monetary compensation worth 200 thousand. LTL (58 thousand euros, without inflation). UNTIL this prize cost around 98 thousand in cash at that time. USD (319 thousand LTL).
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