Nearly 700 people have dropped $250,000 on tickets for Virgin Galactic, but right now even owner Richard Branson can't go into space. The FAA hasn't granted Virgin Galactic the commercial operator's licence necessary to send people into space and probably won't do so for a while. Technically the FAA can award the license in February, but experts say it's highly unlikely to come that early.
Right now only test personnel can get on board Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo. The ship has only completed three rocket-powered flights with one pilot so far. The most recent flight reached 70,997 feet and fired its rockets for 20 seconds. Commercial flights are supposed to hit 360,892 feet and fire its rockets for a minute. Considering the progress and the license hangups, it's still going to be a while before consumers visit space.
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[via CBC]
