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Is Space Tourism Finally About To Take Off?

Part 5 of the TED Radio Hour episode Getting There.

About Richard Branson's TEDTalk

Entrepreneur Richard Branson shares his vision for private, commercial space travel.

About Richard Branson

It's what science fiction is made of — you'll be able to just sit back and look out of your window at the earth as you're travelling around it

Richard Branson's megabrand, Virgin, is home to more than 250 companies, from gyms, gambling houses and bridal boutiques, to fleets of planes, trains and limousines.

Now he's moving upward into space tourism: Virgin Galactic has successfully test-launched a spacecraft that can carry six passengers into space, for a zero-gravity pleasure-cruise at $250,000 a ticket. So far, the company says 700 people have signed up. Branson hopes the first passengers will take off sometime this year.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

NPR/TED Staff