Virgin Galactic cleared for takeoff in space tourism
Billionaire Richard Branson's spaceship company Virgin Galactic said on Friday it received approval from the U.S. aviation safety regulator to fly people to space, turning up the pressure on rivals in the nascent and expensive space tourism sector.
The company's shares surged as much as 40 per cent to US$56.40, their highest since February, after more than doubling in value this year.
The approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) comes at a critical time for Branson as his space venture faces off against Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk's Spacex.
Bezos, Branson and Musk have been investing billions of dollars on their rocket startups.
Branson, who is reportedly flying to space himself in a bid to beat rival billionaire Bezos to the final frontier, received the green light just a month after a successful test flight.
Virgin Galactic last month completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico in May, as its Spaceshiptwo craft with a capacity of six passengers glided to a landing on a runway safely with its two pilots.
The suborbital, rocket-powered craft is carried from takeoff by a larger craft called VMS Eve, then released. In the May flight it achieved a speed of Mach 3 and reached space at an altitude of 55.5 miles.
“A new chapter in the story of human space flight is beginning,” the FAA said in a statement on Virgin Galactic.
The agency confirmed it had “approved the first commercial space license to launch private individuals into space.”
The company has said it has more than 600 reservations for 90-minute flights that include several minutes of weightlessness, priced at US$250,000 a ticket.
“Today's approval ... gives us confidence as we proceed toward our first fully crewed test flight this summer,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement.