Virgin Galactic is selling tickets to space for $450,000 as it plans more commercial flights this year

• Virgin Galactic said it will open ticket sales for commercial flights into space on Wednesday. 
• The tickets will cost $450,000, including a $150,000 deposit for the 90-minute spaceflight.
• The company’s stock jumped over 10% on the announcement, following an 85% drop this year.

Virgin Galactic announced Tuesday that it will open ticket sales for its next commercial flight into outer space on Wednesday.

The space tourism tickets will cost a total of $450,000 for the 90-minute flight, including an initial $150,000 deposit, and will be available for purchase on Virgin Galactic’s website. The experience will include “several minutes of out-of-seat weightlessness” and “breathtaking views of Earth,” according to the company’s press release. 

“At Virgin Galactic, we believe that space is transformational,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in the press release. “We plan to have our first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year, providing an incredibly strong foundation as we begin regular operations and scale our fleet.”

The flight will launch from New Mexico. The cost of the ticket includes several days of astronaut training, as well as “custom accommodations” and “world-class amenities.”

The company also announced it has rebranded by replacing its former logo — the iris of Sir Richard Branson — with a purple illustration of its spacecraft. The news comes after Branson, the company’s founder, sold over $1.25 billion in stock over the course of the past three years. The billionaire was one of six to fly into space on Virgin Galactic’s first full-crewed spaceflight last July. 

Shares of Virgin Galactic’s stock jumped over 10% Tuesday morning on the news, after falling 85% over the past year. The announcement represents a significant step for the company that has repeatedly delayed the launch of its commercial spaceflights since initially planning to begin flying customers into space in 2020.