Airplane is taxiing to take off at the sunrise

Airplane is taxiing to take off at the sunrise

A select few Rochester locals will be among the 700 people with tickets to leave Earth’s atmosphere and usher in a new era of travel with space tourism.

Christopher Wilmot was seven years old when Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon. That broadcast changed his life, and he is now one of the 700 people with a ticket to outer space.

“I was one of those kids watching,” said Wilmot in an interview with 13WHAM. He said that he later became intrigued with all things space. “I was watching Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey. My interest in space and sci-fi peaked early.”

Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines, has been working to advance space tourism for approximately 10 years now. His new company is called Virgin Galactic.

Though Branson’s company is not one of the 100 secondaries that raised capital in 1Q16, he is ushering in a new era of travel and tourism. Most families plan summer vacations to Disney, but with Virgin Galactic, Wilmot and other Rochester locals are planning a trip that’s out of this world.

A spaceship named “Unity” already exists and will carry six passengers at a time to a distance of 67 miles above the ground and into space. The ship will launch from a mother ship named “White Knight” to 50,000 feet, and continue at three times the speed of sound through the atmosphere.

For six minutes, the passengers will be able to un-clip their harnesses and experience zero gravity, a feat so far only accomplished by 500 people in the world.

Wilmot, as well as the other ticket-holders, is an investor in this $400 million project. Celebrities including Tom Hanks, Ashton Kutcher, and Leonardo DiCaprio are all rumored to be investors in this project as well.

The recent SpaceX landings have only fanned the flame of the space tourism craze, proving that a 100% reusable spacecraft is, indeed, possible to manufacture.

Though the phenomenon has entranced millions, the SpaceX project is far from completion. Severe internal damage to the engines of one of the crafts has elicited more intensive research and testing.

Similarly, the Virgin Galactic project recently experienced setbacks. The flights, which were originally supposed to take off this year, have been postponed due to a fiery crash.

The crash serves as a very real reminder of the dangers of space travel for civilians and investors alike and has set the project back considerably.

“I think it will take a little longer than I had hoped for,” Wilmot admitted, but he suspects that the experience will be well worth the wait.