Virgin Galatic space flight within weeks, not months: Richard Branson
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Branson said ticket to space on the Virgin Galactic would cost $250,000.
Virgin Galatic owner and British entrepreneur Richard Branson said he expects his rocket company to launch a space flight "within weeks, not months".
"We will be in space with people not too long after that," he added.
Amazon owner Jeff Bezos had recently announced that his company Blue Origin is developing a rocket which will help man to land on the Moon in the next five years.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had recently announced that his company would be sending Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa as a Moon tourist. Maezawa, 42, will become SpaceX's first Moon tourist. However, there were still no reports on the cost of the ticket.
Branson, on the other hand, said ticket to space on the Virgin Galactic would cost $250,000.
"If I have a room full of 10 people, eight out of 10 would love to go to space if they could afford it," he said. Branson said ultimately he hoped the price of the ticket would come down to $40,000 or $50,000 over the next decade.
American multimillionaire Dennis Tito who travelled to space in April, 2001 as the first tourist paid $20 million for his trip. Tito spent seven days in space.
Maezawa who is the owner of an online fashion mall had said he would be taking six to eight artists from around the world to his Moon journey. SpaceX had described the journey as "an important step toward enabling access for everyday people who dream of traveling to space."
Until now, Americans have been the only ones who have left Earth's orbit. A total of 24 NASA astronauts went to the Moon during the Apollo era of the 1960s and '70s. Twelve walked on the lunar surface.