At $250,000, a reservation with Virgin Galactic is the golden ticket to space for the wealthy.
Jim Clash, however, does not consider himself wealthy. He’s a freelance “adventure” journalist who is planning to part with a portion of his 401(k) to fulfill his lifelong dream of traveling to space.
It’s a dream he still hopes to accomplish, even after a Virgin Galactic spaceship broke apart during a test flight.
“I absolutely have no regrets about buying my ticket,” he said. “But it’s going to take me a little longer to get up there, I think.”
Clash, a New Yorker in his 50’s who has written for publications such as Forbes and Bloomberg Business Week, said he won’t seek a refund and feels confident that any problems will be “ironed out before I fly.”
Approximately 700 people have bought tickets for Virgin Galactic. Among them are celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Clash said he holds ticket number 610. Instead of paying the whole sum up front, he paid a 10% deposit, which put him farther down the list. When he purchased his ticket in 2010, the price tag was $200,000.
“It’s a bit exorbitant price wise for the average person, but it’s doable,” he said.
Related: Richard Branson says he’ll be the first passenger
Federal regulators said it could take a year before they determine what caused the spacecraft to break apart, which occurred only seconds after it detached from its mothership. But officials have already announced that there were problems with the “feathering,” a system used to slow down the spacecraft as it descends back towards Earth, leading to speculation that pilot error may be a factor.
Whatever may have occurred, Clash hopes it doesn’t sideline the project for too long and that he’ll one day be looking through one of the spaceship’s large windows.
“I understand from the astronauts that’s a life changing view,” he said.
“You can’t get it in the 3-D theater; you can’t get it looking at the photos. So for $200,000, which is part of my 401(k), why not?”
