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As a kid, I was captivated by the space program and dreamed of becoming an astronaut. I ended up in Finance instead – that’s similar right? Anyway, I always thought progress would be fast enough to get me into space at some point but after the Apollo heydays in space, things seemed to slow. Then came Virgin Galactic!
Virgin Galactic is a commercial space travel company expecting to take it’s first paying passengers to outer space in 2020.
Don’t sign me up yet – the price is $250,000 for a 90 minute flight to the edge of the atmosphere. Too steep for me but apparently not for the more than 700 customers who already signed up. They expect to get the price down drastically over the coming years so hopefully I can afford it before they have to add Depends to my flight suit.
The $250,000 gets you into a 4-day program mostly for training and assessments but best of all, you get to keep the flight suit! The plane-like spacecraft is launched from another futuristic aircraft, then ignites it powerful propulsion system to get to the edge of the atmosphere where passengers get to enjoy the view and experience micro-gravity before the wings fold up for re-entry and redeploy for landing in the New Mexico spaceport where the trip began.
In addition,the company expects to use its technology to revolutionize long distance travel on earth, reducing the travel time of a normal 10 hour flight to just 90 mins. Traveling Mach 5 versus a measly Mach .8 (notice the decimal point) for a business jet sounds like it could rip your skin off. Even the supersonic jets a couple decades ago only got to Mach 2.
This is a fascinating company and thanks to yesterday’s IPO and GiveAshare.com, anyone can buy one share of Virgin Galactic stock for themselves or as a gift. We anticipate this being one of our more popular stocks because of the allure of space travel and the coolness factor of the company, the stock certificate and the founder, Sir Richard Branson.
In addition, a share of Virgin Galactic stock is a powerful way to teach kids. First, the framed stock certificate grabs their attention and hanging it on the wall keeps it front and center. Then, each mailing from his/her company becomes a learning opportunity – declared dividends checks, annual reports, invites to shareholder meetings. The Virgin Galactic website is full of captivating information, images, and videos that will keep them coming back for more. Plus, we want more boys and girls interested in STEM.
In the meantime, I’ll be watching the prices to see when I get to take the plunge – I know it will happen!
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