It provides a fun ride and a great view, it doesn't need a use beyond that. Good enough apparently for 800 customers to fork over $250k each. Not how I'd spend my money, but each to their own.
If you want to experience weightlessness, which is basically what you're paying for here, there are much cheaper ways of doing that.
Oh, come on.
It's much more than "weightlessness". It's the chance to be part of what has thus far been a pretty exclusive group of people: those who have traveled to suborbital heights or beyond. That means in you've shared an experience (and a view) in a category with guys with names like Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard.
If you want to experience weightlessness, which is basically what you're paying for here, there are much cheaper ways of doing that.
Oh, come on.
It's much more than "weightlessness". It's the chance to be part of what has thus far been a pretty exclusive group of people: those who have traveled to suborbital heights or beyond. That means in you've shared an experience (and a view) in a category with guys with names like Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard.
That's a big deal, no matter how you slice it.
It's not even orbital.
The first two Mercury flights were sub-orbital. It's still spaceflight, as we define it.