Cash-rich UAE residents are being targeted for a $100,000 ticket for the first commercial space flight that is due to take-off next year.
Netherlands-based Space Expedition Corporation (SXC) is in the final stages of producing a reusable spaceship that will allow four one-hour flights into space each day.
“You’ll go straight into the air and break the sound barrier within a minute. You’re in space within four minutes.
There’s only a pilot and one passenger, so you have a co-pilot experience,” SXC CEO and founder Michiel Mol was quoted as saying by the Arabian Business.
“You’ll see Earth from out of space - a life changing experience to be two or three people looking down on several billion people on earth,” he said.
Before the hour is up, gravity will pull the spacecraft back to earth. The US Federal Aviation Administration is expected to approve the spaceships for commercial use by the end of next year.
SXC has been selling tickets for the past two years in anticipation of the launch and more than 250 so far have been sold, for $100,000 each.
Those willing to buy tickets must pay a 50 per cent deposit but those who pay the full amount upfront will have their names put into a ballot to be one of the first 100 passengers.
Aviation enthusiasts are vying for the first trip to space, while retirees who witnessed the first man land on the moon in 1969 are spending their savings on a near-similar pursuit, the report said.