Kottayam(Kerala): Santosh George Kulangara, a Kerala based journalist and a traveller is all set to become India's first space tourist. He is the only Indian to book his ticket for the space tourism program in Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. He was the first Indian included among a group of 'space tourists' who propose to make a suborbital trip in a spaceship as part of a space tourism initiative of Virgin Galactic and was selected for the same in 2007. A native of Kerala's Kottayam district, Kulangara is well known for his travelogues, Sancharam. He has already travelled to more than 130 countries within a span of 24 years. At the age of 26, he headed Labour India Publications, a publishing house that provides 30 different journals and magazines for students.
The travel cost is estimated to be around $2.5 lakh (1.8 crore). Santhosh will capture his explorations in his videos. He says this journey is for all Malayalis(Keralites) around the world. Virgin Galactic is a private spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson which aims at taking the best tourists around the world to space.
READ: Virgin Galactic's flight opens a new door to space for all
Earlier, Sir Richard Branson, on July 11, along with a full crew comprising of two pilots - Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, three mission specialists - Sirisha Bandla, Colin Bennett and Beth Moses flew to the outer edge of space onboard Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity, opening up the doors for space tourism. Branson (70) also officially became the first billionaire to fly into space that too in his own winged rocket ship. It was also Unity's 22nd test flight with a full crew.
Virgin Galactic mulls two further flights, to initiate commercial operations from early 2022. The firm plans to carry out 400 such flights per year and reportedly 600 tickets have already been sold. With this successful flight to the edge of space, Virgin Galactic has opened up a new door to space for all.
Also, for the first time in space travel, a woman with Telugu roots travelled to an outer earth orbit, along with Sir Richard Branson. Sirisha Bandla who works as Vice President of Government Affairs at Virgin Galactic flew to space in the spacecraft 'Unity-22'. Sirisha's family hails from Andhra Pradesh and settled in Washington DC, USA. She graduated in aerospace and astronautical engineering in Washington and did her MBA from George Washington University. Sirisha had also held several key positions at Virgin Galactic since 2015.
