SPACEPORT AMERICA (New Mexico), Aug 11: Billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic has announced it will charge a fare of $450,000 per ticket for space travel, which is almost double of what it had originally proposed. Anyone can register here for an invitation: Register Your Name Here

Branson has said that priority will be given to those who had already sought tickets in the first lot offered before his inaugural flight last month. About 600 tickets were sold at that time for $250,000 each for a ticket.

Virgin Galactic said, "Our vision is to operate hundreds of flights each year from Spaceport America, and other spaceport locations around the globe."

He said there will be an option to book an entire flight consisting of six seats in the spacecraft's cabin. “We expect many consumers will want to fly with friends or family, and we will customize the experience to meet their individual preferences,” Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Michael Colglazier said.

Michael Colglazier said, "Leveraging the surge in consumer interest following the Unity 22 flight, we are excited to announce the reopening of sales... As we endeavour to bring the wonder of space to a broad global population, we are delighted to open the door to an entirely new industry and consumer experience."

Virgin will undertake some more test missions before launching the paid trips next year. The next flight, Unity 23, may be in September, from Spaceport America in New Mexico as earlier.

Shares of Virgin Galactic went up by 8% by weekened, following Branson's announcement.

Branson's competitors in space tourism are Blue Origin of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Space X owned by Tesla's Elon Musk. Both Branson and Bezos had flown to the edge of space last month in their own spacecraft to experience weightlessness and have a view of the Earth from the space. Space X had already conducted its first crewed test flight of its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station last year.

Bezos and Musk have not finalised their price for a ticket for the space flight although Blue Origin is reportedly fixing the cost for a ticket in the range of $2,00,000 and $3,00,000.