they believe you re going to see a lot of people, hundreds of people in coming years take off from the spaceport. it is not just richard branson, it is for any operator that wants to go in space and a perfect location. you have no conflict with air traffic control and great weather. for state of new mexico, they think it is worth a billion dollars in terms of tax revenue, for last crews as, half million from this launch. so many come in for the race, for the liftoff. we stayed in hotels. how soon will tickets come down. it is now $250,000, going up a bit according to branson. he would like it to come down. his hope and jeff bezos hope who takes off july 20th, they hope as more go into space on passenger flights, as they have more space ships, branson has
if we want to go ahead, we ll build space ships for the rest of us. as you know, back in 1994, dear friend greg marinack gave me a copy of the spirit of st. louis. and i learned, in fact, much of aviation was opened up because of prizes, and the idea that let s have a prize for space flight emanated from that conversation. and in 1996, we launched a $10 million prize under the arch in st. louis to incentivize teams to build space ships, all kind of space ships that would be for the rest of us. and the space ship one vehicle built that flew twice to 100 kilometers altitude back in 2004 was then purchased, the rights of that was purchased by virgin galactic to make space ship two, what we re seeing here today. in fact, i m going to ask our control room to take a picture
the trip would make branson the first by lone injury to travel to space aboard a vehicle he helped to fund. we have more on this new frontier in the space race. reporter: the countdown is on. in just hours entrepreneur richard branson hopes to become the first person to ride a self-funded rocket into su suborbital space. a launch nearly two decades in the making. tell me how do you feel? well, iman nag to avoid getting excited since we started building space ships and mother ships and all these things. i finally got the call from our chief engineer saying that every single box has been checked on the safety aspect and would i like to go into space. and i hit the roof. i was so excited. reporter: the virgin galactic
to space. rachel crane has more. reporter: the countdown is on. in just hours entrepreneur richard branson hopes to become the first person to ride a self funded rocket into suborbital space. astronaut, zero zero 1, richard branson. a launch two decades in the making. tell me, how do you feel. i managed to avoid getting excited for 17 years since we started building space ships and mother ships and space ports and all these things. i finally got the call from the chief engineer saying every box had been tick the on the safety aspect and would i like to go to space? and i hit i hit the roof. i was to excited. the virgin galactic rocket powered space plane is set to take oev tomorrow from new mexico. the mother ship will release the is a spaceship at 40,000 feet.