Virgin Galactic reveals its $250K a seat
Richard Branson’s space tourism company Virgin Galactic revealed the interior design of its SpaceShipTwo, a space plane designed to provide astronaut-like experience for everyone willing to pay $250,000.
Photorealistic renderings of the cabin were revealed in a fanfare-full live event on 28 July 2020 and feature subtly padded surfaces, LED-adorned windows, individually sized reclining seats of sleek design and a huge mirror to observe and film oneself floating in the microgravity. The plane is designed to be lifted to the altitude of 15 kilometres with the help of a mother ship, then burn its rocket engine to jump to 110 kilometres, just 10 kilometres over the official edge of space and gracefully glide down to Earth. It is not capable of orbital flight, but an experience of weightlessness, the prime feature of space flight for many, is to be achieved by simply falling at very high altitude for several minutes.
The cabin is designed to accentuate those minutes with large open space in the middle and soft surfaces all around, fit for performing all the microgravity tumbles one can imagine without the risk of injury. Designed by Virgin Galactic’s partner Under Armour, the seats are designed to minimise discomfort of high-G loads whilst ascending and landing, as well as conjure ‘luminous desert sands, celestial spaces and the ocean’ with their carefully curated colour palette. The cabin is closed in with a large circular mirror in the aft bulkhead, allowing passengers to observe themselves in the natural brightness of the Earth, as all lighting is to be extinguished at the highest point of the flight. In addition to a picture-inviting mirror, 16 high definition cameras dotted around the cabin will capture every moment for a ‘beautifully edited historically significant personal movie’.
Richard Branson said “We started with what we believed would be an optimal customer experience and then built the spaceship around it. This cabin has been designed specifically to allow thousands of people like you and me to achieve the dream of spaceflight safely.” Virgin Galactic’s new CEO Michael Colglazier added a remark about the significance of Augmented Reality technology for this occasion. According to him, “it will help bring the dream of space one step closer for space enthusiasts everywhere, as the free ‘app’ allows one to explore the cabin and the process of the flight without paying quarter of a million dollars and waiting through constant delays.