---
title: "Virgin Galactic’s Plan: Send Tourists to Space Every 32 Hours"
description: "Virgin Galactic plans to start selling tickets to space next year. By 2023, it will launch a shuttlefull of space tourists every 32 hours."
date: "2019-09-10"
modified: "2019-09-10"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/virgin-galactic-tourists-space"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
  - "space tourism"
  - "the digest"
  - "virgin galactic"
---

# Virgin Galactic’s Plan: Send Tourists to Space Every 32 Hours

![Virgin Galactic plans to start selling tickets to space next year. By 2023, it will launch a shuttlefull of passengers every 32 hours.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/virgin-galactic-spaceship-orbit.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Virgin Galactic\</em\>*

## Coming Soon

Virgin Galactic, the space tourism enterprise owned by entrepreneur and investor Richard Branson, has plans to seriously ramp up its operations. By 2023, the company expects to launch a shuttle of passengers into space, on average, every 32 hours — which is more than one ride to space every other day.

The plan is to start offering tickets to customers in 2020, [according to *Business Insider*](<https://www.businessinsider.com/branson-virgin-galactic-people-space-every-32-hours-2019-9/?r=US&IR=T>). For $250,000 apiece, passengers will be brought to an altitude of 100 km on [Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo](<https://futurism.com/virgin-galactic-spaceshiptwo-vss-unity-space>), where they can experience weightlessness for a few minutes as they [look down on Earth](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/virgin-galactic-spaceflight-vss-unity-spaceshiptwo>) — which sounds a lot like the long-deferred dream of space tourism, at least for the mega-rich.

## Ramping Up

Virgin hopes to launch 16 flights over the course of 2020, [according to paperwork](<https://sec.report/Document/0001193125-19-238293/>) that the company filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last week. Then it plans to ramp up operations over the next four years — the company expects to build a fleet of five SpaceShipTwo vehicles to scale its space tourism business.

Assuming every flight is fully booked, that means a total of 3,242 people will fly into space on a Virgin Galactic shuttle between 2020 and 2023. But you'll have to be rich to afford one. According to the filings, Virgin is targeting customers with at least $10 million in the bank — a population that the company argues will continue to grow over the next four years.

**READ MORE:** [Richard Branson wants Virgin Galactic to send people to space every 32 hours by 2023](<https://www.businessinsider.com/branson-virgin-galactic-people-space-every-32-hours-2019-9/?r=US&IR=T>) \[*Business Insider*\]

**More on Virgin:** *[Check Out This Stunning Footage of Virgin Galactic’s Space Plane](<https://futurism.com/virgin-galactic-footage-spaceplane>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)