What is the vision?
Virgin Galactic will provide space access to paying tourism passengers and scientists for research with a smaller environmental impact, lower cost and greater flexibility than any other spaceflight organization, past or present. Once operational, Virgin Galactic aims to fly 500 people in the first year and 30,000 individuals within 10 years.

When will the flights begin?
The VSS Enterprise and VMS Eve test flight program is well under way. Virgin Galactic will officially launch with paying passengers once it believes it is safe to do so and has received all regulatory approvals.

What can passengers expect?
Those who sign up prior to commercial operations have a front row seat to the project as it progresses. Through the Virgin Galactic space experience, passengers will be able to leave their seats for several minutes and float in zero-gravity, while enjoying astounding views of space and the Earth stretching approximately 1,000 miles in every direction. Prior to the flight, passengers will go through three days of preparation, medical checks, bonding and G-force acclimatization, all of which is included in the price of the flight.

How many flights will operate and how many passengers on each?
Each SS2 carries 6 passengers and 2 pilots. During at least the first year of flight operation Virgin Galactic will operate just one flight per week, so will carry 6 passengers per week. This will allow the engineers and maintenance teams plenty of time to perfect spaceship maintenance and turnaround procedures.
A total of five SS2’s and 2 WK2’s have been ordered and Virgin Galactic hopes to have the entire fleet delivered within 2 years of the first delivery. With this in mind they hope to be operating at least once per day by the end of our second year of operation.

Is insurance available?
At this stage of the project the general feeling of insurance companies is that they will in future be interested in offering commercial space travel insurance policies to Virgin Galactic clients however, understandably, they want to see the flights operate safely first so they cannot currently offer insurance to any passenger from any country but we do expect this to change at a later date, although not necessarily before the first commercial flights begin. The FAA (US Federal Aviation Authority) is comfortable with licensing Virgin Galactic to operate commercial space flights and essentially view it as any other adventure activity. Therefore, passengers will fly at their own risk and will be asked to sign a liability waiver to that effect before flight.

What are the health requirements?
One of the key factors Virgin Galactic has taken into consideration is ensuring that anyone of general good health can fly. Therefore there are few medical conditions which will categorically prohibit any individual from spaceflight however spaceflight has, up to now, been an adventure reserved solely for astronauts, who are arguably among the fittest and healthiest individuals on our planet. With passenger safety in mind Virgin Galactic will be asking spaceflight passengers to undergo a medical exam which will be tailored to the individual, based on their medical history. This will then provide an accurate assessment of their fitness to fly and enable them to tailor pre-flight preparation to make sure they get the best experience possible from their spaceflight. There is currently no upper age limit and we are dealing with requests from individuals under the age of 18 on a case-by-case basis. Should a passenger be unable to fly due to health reasons, their deposit will be refunded in full.

What about visa and immigration requirements?
Flights will operate from Spaceport America in New Mexico. Therefore normal US immigration policies will apply and we cannot currently foresee any additional requirements for space travel.

What other documentation is required?
At this stage, apart from signing the Terms & Conditions, no other specific documentation is required in order to accept a reservation. In the lead up to flight the only documentation required will be the Medical Form, the waiver and acceptance of their Conditions of Carriage. Both of the latter documents are yet to be finalized. Once these documents are available Virgin Galactic will ensure the deposit is fully refundable should an individual be unhappy with the waiver or Conditions of Carriage.

Useful Websites
Virgin Galactic
Scaled Composites
Spaceport America (New Mexico)
Mojave Spaceport (California)
FAA Space Transport division
NASA
Virgin Group

Wikipedia is also a great resource for general space information, just visit  www.wikipedia.com and search for whatever you are looking for.