Consider the fact that more than 100 people have already plunked down $200,000 apiece for a seat on a Virgin Galactic spaceflight and thousands more have already placed a total of $11 million in deposits for a chance at manned spaceflight.

"Intergalactic Space Virgins", Dominic Basulto, Tech Central Station

I traced the $11 million number to a Tai quote in space.com "We’ve taken over $10 million in deposits and we’ve not really started to advertise".

Note that $10 million corresponds to 50 people having paid $200,000 in full or 500 paying the minimum deposit of $20,000, not "100 people paid in full" or "thousands more" placing $20,000.

I am ambivalent about using funny numbers to start a bandwagon on the full priced seats. Somebody please keep me honest on the game prize seat reporting.

$10-$11 million is the lowest number reported for some time. Most everyone else has an implicit $780 million in deposits.

Good article, but upon closer reading, I'm think you're mistaken about the numbers.

Consider the fact that more than 100 people have already plunked down $200,000 apiece for a seat

As I understand this, 100 people have paid $20 million for tickets. They just need their boarding passes and seat assignments.

...thousands more have already placed a total of $11 million in deposits for a chance at manned spaceflight.

These people fit Tai's quote that:

Virgin Galactic already has some 33,000 registered applications for suborbital flights. “We’ve taken over $10 million in deposits and we’ve not really started to advertise,” he noted.

This is where it gets tricky, Virgin Galactic's application does not require that you pay the $20K up front, so as I read it, Tai meant they had $500 people who've actually paid the deposit and the remaining 33,000 have submitted applications that say "Yes" to the form's question: "Would you consider putting down a deposit for a ride when we're ready for you to do so"

Note that $10 million corresponds to 50 people having paid $200,000 in full or 500 paying the minimum deposit of $20,000, not "100 people paid in full" or "thousands more" placing $20,000.

In a related story, I've got this post on my blog:

You see, next March, for $49 bucks, you'll be able to blow $50 bucks by sending a business card or some other tiny bauble into space. I figure if ZeroG can get enough marks to pay for "seats", they could score more than $1.2 million from each flight.

I reread your article one more time and finally realized that it's the the media you're criticizing for not presenting the information in a clear way.

So ignore my previous comment. Mea Minima Culpa.

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