Virgin Galactic says trips to space aboard its rocket plane will start at $450,000 per seat

Virgin Galactic, buoyed by a successful July 11 sub-orbital test flight with founder Richard Branson aboard the company's winged rocket plane, re-opened ticket sales Thursday for rides to space starting at $450,000 per seat.

But Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, said fully commercial flights are not expected until the third quarter of 2022, after two more test flights of the company's VSS Unity spaceplane and extensive upgrades of Virgin's Eve carrier jet to improve durability and turnaround times between flights. While the start of commercial operations will come a few months later than had been hoped, the results of two piloted test flights earlier this year, including Branson's July 11 trip to space, show the company is close to "completing our test flight program and launching commercial passenger service in '22," Colglazier said.