Commercial space travel expected next year, Virgin Galactic announces at Spaceport Cup event

Commercial space travel is expected to happen next year, Virgin Galactic officials confirmed at news conference Tuesday at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

With the announcement, the company is poised to be the first commercial venture to take humans up to space.

Virgin Galactic is employing the first female commercial astronaut as the head of a five astronaut team for the effort, which is contingent on a handful of remaining tests going well.

“It will be soon,” said Beth Moses, who is Virgin’s chief astronaut instructor and program manager. “We have every expectation we’ll be in commercial operation next year,” added pilot Dave McKay.

Operations will for the flights will be based out of the Spaceport America facility in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

Initially, 700 tickets are being sold for suborbital flights lasting about six minutes that provide what was described as a “beautiful view of earth.”

“I can tell you firsthand the view is stunning, being weightless and stationary — coming to a peaceful stop at altitude, it’s something everyone should experience,” Moses said.

She described the launch as smooth as passengers go up vertically in the darkness before reaching altitude for viewing, and a return that’s “loud and visceral and fun breaking through the atmosphere.”

“The view is stunning and the earth is more brighter and defined that you can imagine,” Moses explained. “It’s a phenomenal experience, and over time it will become more and more accessible to more and more people.”

Virgin Galactic has eventual designs for longer flights and “a space line that goes from point-to-point.”

“it’s a remarkable thing and we’re doing it because we think it’s great for humanity… it’s hugely important,” Moses observed.

Virgin officials made their comments at a media event kicking off the 2019 Spaceport America Cup, which runs through Saturday in Las Cruces.

The third annual event is showcasing competitors from fourteen different countries, competing in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition for student rocketry teams. American and international university students will be launching solid, liquid, and hybrid rockets to target altitudes of 10,000 and 30,000 feet.

(Editor’s note: You can watch the entire Spaceport Cup news conference, including the remarks at the end by Virgin Galactic, by clicking play on the video player below.)