Travelling in Space Becoming A Reality As Richard Branson's Firm Gets Commercial License Wining Over Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk

Now the dream of traveling in space is about to become a reality. That is, now people will be able to roam in space and enjoy the scenery there because Virgin Galactic, the spaceship company of billionaire Richard Branson, has got approval for takeoff.

Spacecraft company Virgin Galactic said on Friday that it has received commercial license from the US Aviation Safety Regulator (FAA) to take people into space. With this, Virgin Galactic has become the first company to get permission from the FAA to bring customers to space, winning over Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX.

After this decision, the competition in the new and expensive space tourism sector will increase. 

Notably, Virgin Galactic still plans three additional test flights, one of which is expected to include Branson himself.

Virgin Galactic is targeting early 2022 to begin commercial service. The company has sold some 600 tickets priced at between $200,000 to $250,000.

Earlier this month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced plans to fly into space in July with his company, Blue Origin. A mystery bidder spent $28 million to join Bezos and his brother in the July 20 launch.

Space Tourism - 3 Big Companies

After this green signal, a new sector of space tourism will be developed. The Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) approval for Branson comes at a time when the world's richest billionaire and Amazon owner Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and Tesla boss Elon Musk's SpaceX are also in the race for space. Making a claim. The three companies active in space tourism were considered to be a tough competitor of each other, but in the meantime Virgin Galactic won.

Virgin Galactic's approach is different from SpaceX and Blue Origin as rockets of later companies launch vertically from the ground and Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo aircraft launches horizontally from the air.

Virgin Galactic has a sizeable waiting list of individuals hoping to travel to space, many of whom have paid in advance.

The Ticket Price

Virgin Galactic completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico in May last month. The 6-passenger SpaceShipTwo Craft with its two pilots landed safely on the runway. At the same time, the company has said that it has more than 600 reservations for 90-minute flights. Which costs $250,000 per ticket. On the other hand, if we talk in Indian rupees, then the price will be around (Rs 1,85,55,425 or Rs. 1.85 crores)

World's First Operational Hyperloop To Come Up On Mumbai-Pune Route, Courtesy Virgin

US-based Hyperloop One (called Virgin Hyperloop One since the end of 2017) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Maharashtra government to develop the world’s first operational hyperloop between Mumbai and Pune by 2025, reported Bloomberg Quint.

Backed by Richard Branson’s investee company Virgin, Hyperloop One will develop and construct a Hyperloop between Mumbai and Pune, reducing the travel time to cover the 140-km distance between Mumbai and Pune to 14-25 minutes, from 3-4 hours at present.



India may be the first country to have an operational Hyperloop, he said in an interaction with a select group of journalists on the sidelines of Magnetic Maharashtra Global Business Summit in Mumbai.

"Virgin Hyperloop One can help India become a global transportation pioneer and forge a new world-changing industry", said Branson.



"As our team’s studies have found, the Pune-Mumbai route could result in USD $55 billion (INR ₹350,000 crores) in socio-economic benefits, time savings, accident reduction and operational cost savings, over 30 years of operation", he added.

The concept of Hyperloop transportation was introduced and named by Elon Musk in August 2013, although he is not involved with Hyperloop One or any other company developing Hyperloop.

In May 2017, Hyperloop One became the only company in the world that has built a fully operational Hyperloop system, when it made a 500-meter Development Loop (DevLoop) in North Las Vegas, US.

In September 2017, Virgin Hyperloop One's biggest rival Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) also signed a MoU with the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB), to facilitate the development of HTT’s Hyperloop transportation between Vijaywada and Amaravati, and potentially turning a trip of more than one hour into a 6 minute ride.

HTT was also reportedly in talks with five other Indian sates to begin trials for their high-speed transportation technology in the country. Later, the next month, HTT announced that it has began construction of the world’s first full scale Passenger Hyperloop Capsule, which will be delivered in early 2018. But now it seems like Virgin Hyperloop has won the race with India being its first testing ground.

To recall, a year back, one of the co-founders of Hyperloop One has launched a rival startup called Arrivo that also aims to develop technology based on the hyperloop architecture.

It is to be noted that, India too have local startup working on Hyperloop transportation technologies and its called Hyperloop India. Founded in 2015 by a small group of students from BITS Pilani, Team Hyperloop India is a unique multi-disciplinary multi-university think tank consisting of 60+ motivated student volunteers in the fields of engineering and business, interested in reinventing transportation in India.

In June last year, Hyperloop India was raising funds through crowdfunding platform Ketto. Later, the startup found its sponsor in Chennai's Hindustan University, who agreed to sponsor the Hyperloop India team, which will help them in realising their mission of participating in the final stage of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Hyperloop Competition Weekend to be held soon in Hawthorne, California.