As Virgin Galactic's first travel agency goes public, Carole Ferry questions the reality of space tourism.

For the first time, a space tourism company has just made its IPO in New York. This is Virgin Galactic. The first commercial flights could take place next year and it is far from the only company on the launch pad.

There are two competitors in the sector.

Virgin galactic which belongs to Richard Branson, the British businessman (who created Virgin mobile or Virgin megastore) and Blue Origin, the project of the boss of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.

What they propose is a trip of an hour and a half in low orbit, that is to say that you leave 100 kilometers from the earth.

You must not be afraid of being shaken. At the time of propulsion, you cash three times your weight, enough to sink into your seat. And then, suddenly, you arrive in silence, at night. There you can detach, fly a few minutes in the shuttle admiring from the inside, the fascinating spectacle of the stars. Nothing to do with what you can see when you watch them from the ground and then go down.

The first commercial flights are scheduled for next year.

The Astro Port is already installed in New Mexico. 600 candidates are ready to leave including a dozen French. It must still have three or four days of preparation and especially a flight ticket to 250,000 euros.

We are not at all on the moon or March?

The moon or March is also in preparation but it will be much more expensive, it is 20 million euros the ticket for a stay of a week minimum.

Here too, there are many competitors including the Space X rocket Elon Musk, the Japanese, Indians and Chinese who all work on this tourism development.

Then, another project in progress, the stays aboard the international space station which must be privatized in 2024. There are already signed agreements between those who could take care of the transport, the supply and the reception on the spot. . This is clearly a sector in full development.

It is still a sector that is still very inaccessible.

What blocks today is not the technique, that's it, it's ready. It was not easy but it's done. In fact, the cost in the future will mostly depend on insurance. Today, the mortality rate in space is 1%. It may seem marginal but it's huge for insurance. In fact, the boom in space tourism today depends mainly on its security.

Carole Ferry replaces Axel de Tarlé on Wednesday, October 30, 2019.