OREANDA-NEWS. The American corporation Boeing is going to invest 20 million US dollars in Virgin Galactic company. According to the information published on the Boeing website, the purpose is sending tourists into space.

The publication says: “Boeing's strategic investment facilitates our effort to drive the commercialization of space and broaden consumer access to safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible new forms of transportation,” said Brian Schettler, senior managing director of Boeing HorizonX Ventures. “Our work with Virgin Galactic, and others, will help unlock the future of space travel and high-speed mobility.”

And  further: “This is the beginning of an important collaboration for the future of air and space travel, which are the natural next steps for our human spaceflight program,” said Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic. “Virgin Galactic and Boeing share a vision of opening access to the world and space, to more people, in safe and environmentally responsible ways.”

It is noted that Virgin Galactic has already invested 1 billion dollars in the creation of reusable systems for transporting man into space.

Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 by British billionaire Richard Banson. In February 2019, the company first sent a spaceplane with a passenger on board to the borders of outer space. The ship rose 88 kilometers above the surface of the Earth and successfully returned.

In the same month, Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russian state corporation Roskosmos announced the intention to send tourists into space. According to him, by 2021 it is planned to organize a short-term flight of two tourists to the International Space Station. The development of space tourism, according to experts of the company, can bring it hundreds of millions of dollars a year.