Virgin Galactic opens commercial spaceport

The world's first commercial hub for spacecraft has opened in the US state of New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic, which is owned by UK businessman Richard Branson, plans to start offering commercial services within two years, with customers having to pay $200,000 to fly outside the earth's atmosphere.

Already more than 400 people are in the queue to witness a view of the Earth until now reserved only for professional astronauts.

Al Jazeera's John Terrett reports from New Mexico.

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[vipnon1965]

Tax payer financed, Not Richard Branson's own money.

[eliasgerris]

To bad that the people who actually paid for this buidling will probably never be able to enjoy one of those 200.000 USD flights :/ What a ripoff

[triangle1990]

@Daemonicfoxx tell em. majority of people commenting are just bitter and broke

[Daemonicfoxx]

I think that some people really should go look at the history of travel and tourism.

Sure at this point $200,000 is out the reach of the average person. But when the first commercial airlines came into existence the ticket prices where also quite extravagant for the times and well out of the average person. But as the technology got developed the cost of travel came down.

The same will happen with space tourism & these companies want bring that cost so they sell to a larger market.

[ccricers]

@McBlemmen Kinda surprised you didn't respond to the broader attacks at Virgin Galactic. See RalphMarx below

[McBlemmen]

@ccricers yup , and this si for entertainment , 2 diffrent things.

Now get out

[Drednots]

Branson only has to invest 1 million dollars a year for 5 years EVEN if it fails. The local county approved 40 million of tax payer dollars in 08' Now the estimates are 200 million. Pretty good return on your investment if your a billionaire.... Little risk and let tax payers float the bill. Don't go to a bank. Just let tax payers pay for it and see what happens. What fucking bullshit. As if states and counties are not fucked up enough...no wonder why this fucker is always smiling....

[KRYTEN451]

This, one of the few really exciting investments for the future. I'm happy for Branson, Richardson and all of us on this milestone.

[MyDormantSoul]

@WinkyMaeve as a opposed to billions of taxpayers money being spent if it were publicly owned....

[RayKalmNiam]

@ccricers I'm not setting up any false dilemma. You can't easily do both, you are broke and spend trillions on "dictator" aid and defense.

[absformula]

awesome