A Sydney Morning Herald blog entry reports that a number of travel agents in Australia have signed up to sell SpaceShipTwo flights for Virgin Galactic. Nine travel agents around the country will offer the flights at A$264,000 a ticket, starting with a A$26,000 deposit. Five Australians, including two from the Australian science magazine Cosmos, already purchased seats before the travel agents were selected.
What’s more interesting, though, are the comments to the post left by readers. Yes, there are a few critics asking why people would spend money on a suborbital spaceflight when that money “could be so well spent down here on earth.” (As if the money was actually being spent in outer space.) Many more people seemed interested, if they had the money, or just quipped jokes. “Hope the $260K includes food & drinks?”
Great, the price has gone up. No doubt a brokers fee but don’t tell me the travel agent gets the 64,000$? Can we still order the ticket direct for $200,000? Or is this in Aussie dollars and not yet corrected to American dollars?
It’s a shame that some of the bloggers on that article don’t have any vision. They can’t see what a wonderful time period this is when we’re taking our first small steps into space. Even if the price never comes down low enough for me to go I feel privileged to be here while it’s happening and will be VERY EXCITED when I see the first tourists land on the moon!
Peter: The prices mentioned in the post are in Australian dollars (hence the use of “A$”). At current exchange rates US$200,000 is approximately A$260,000, so there’s been no price increase of any significance.