ICEHOTEL to witness world premier of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo

ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi is one of three travel agencies in Sweden invited to attend the world premier of SpaceShipTwo, the space vehicle developed by Scaled Composites to take private passengers to space. This exclusive event, hosted by Virgin Founder and Chairman Sir Richard Branson and world renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan, will take place in Mojave, CA on December 7, 2009.

ICEHOTEL has been hand-selected as a Virgin Galactic Accredited Space Agent (ASA). And has completed intensive product training in order to provide the highly specialized information required to sell such an exciting and unique product.

Virgin Galactic’s remarkable and pioneering project is now in its final stages. The unveiling of SpaceShipTwo marks the next critical step in bringing space tourism to the general public, a privilege that has been limited to astronauts and those with the means to spend $20 million for a flight. With a comparatively lower price of US$200,000, ICEHOTEL is one of the few travel agencies in the world with the ability to attend this groundbreaking event and accept deposits for this once-in-a-lifetime journey.

Based on the design of SpaceShipOne, the historic vehicle that completed three successful spaceflights in 2004, thus claiming the $10 million Ansari X-Prize, SpaceShipTwo is the next generation of spacecraft built for the specific purpose of taking passengers into suborbital space. WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier aircraft that will launch SpaceShipTwo from 50,000 feet, was unveiled in July 2008 and is well into a successful test flight program. Following SpaceShipTwo’s unveiling in December 2009, this revolutionary spacecraft will immediately embark on an extensive test flight regime.

Already, approximately 300 people from around the world have paid nearly $40 million in deposits to guarantee an early seat.

Additional facts

The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$ 10,000,000 prize for the first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. The prize was won on October 4, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik 1launch, by the Tier One project designed by Burt Rutan and financed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, using the experimental space plane SpaceShipOne.

ICEHOTEL, part-owner of Spaceport Sweden, will be attending the event in the Mojave Desert with a temporary ABSOLUT ICEBAR.

Contact Information

Camilla Bondareva

Press Officer

ICEHOTEL

Contact via E-mail