Virgin Galactic introduced a price hike to its commercial space flight tickets three months ago and since then, the company has sold 100 tickets.
Originally priced at $250,000 per ticket, Richard Branson‘s company increased the cost to a whopping $450,000 back in August, but that didn’t seem to dissuade potential astronauts. According to reports, the company has now amassed roughly 700 customers, 100 of which all purchased tickets at the higher price. Among those that reserved seats is SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who managed to secure his position before the price increase. So far only customers who have paid a $1,000 USD deposit can purchase tickets, and Virgin Galactic hopes to reach 1,000 customers by the fourth quarter of 2022 before actually launching anyone into space.
The company’s first manned flight occurred in July with Branson on board, racing ahead of Jeff Bezos‘ Blue Origin by just nine days. Its next flight — dubbed Unity 23 — will take place in mid-2022, with the company hoping to carry three passengers from the Italian Air Force who will be studying the effects of microgravity.
Elsewhere in the tech world, Apple CEO Tim Cook has revealed that he holds cryptocurrencies as part of his personal investments.
