Virgin Galactic suborbital flight tickets available to general public starting Wednesday

Virgin Galactic will begin selling suborbital flight tickets to the general public starting on Wednesday.

In a statement on Tuesday, the space tourism company said anyone — for $450,000 a ticket — will be able to reserve a spot on an upcoming spaceship flight. 

Passengers will reach an altitude of more than 50 miles and experience nearly four minutes of weightlessness during their 90-minute flight, according to NBC News.

Customers will fly in Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Unity, a rocket-powered vehicle that is designed to take off on a conventional runway as it is attached to the underbelly of a carrier airship. The vehicles fly up to 50,000 feet, where Unity releases, and its engine ignites to power it to the edge of space.

“We plan to have our first 1,000 customers on board at the start of commercial service later this year,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement.

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic launched into space last year, joining fellow billionaire businessmen Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin and Elon Musk of SpaceX in a new space race. 

SpaceX made history last year with the first launch of an all-civilian crew into space. 

Virgin Galactic’s spaceship rides will take off from New Mexico’s Spaceport America, NBC News noted. 

Virgin Galactic also said customers who reserve seats will receive several days of training and spaceflight preparedness programs ahead of the launch.