He’s always dreamed of it, and in 2004 founded his own company to make it happen.
July 11,2021 He’s always dreamed of it, and in 2004 founded his own company to make it happen. On Sunday, billionaire Richard Branson will take off from a base in New Mexico aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel bound for the edge of space. The Briton is hoping to finally get the nascent space tourism industry off the ground—but also go one up on Jeff Bezos by winning the race to be the first person to cross the final frontier in a ship built by their own company. The Amazon founder’s great rival, SpaceX boss Elon Musk, announced on Twitter he’d be there to witness it. “Will see you there to wish you the best,” he wrote to Branson. Hours later, Bezos chimed in with a message of support, but only after his own company, Blue Origin, had posted a viral tweet drawing an unfavorable comparison between its space offerings and Virgin Galactic’s. Several tourists journeyed to the International Space Station in the 2000s, but on board Russian rockets. Branson’s official role is to evaluate the private astronaut experience to enhance the journey for future clients. The spaceflight should take place shortly after 7:00 am Mountain Time (1300 GMT), with a livestream provided by Virgin Galactic on its website. A massive carrier plane will take off from a horizontal runway, flown by two pilots, gaining altitude for about an hour. Below this plane hangs the spaceship VSS Unity—a SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered spaceplane—with two more pilots and four passengers: Branson and three Virgin employees. After climbing to 50,000 feet (15 kilometers), VSS Unity, which is about the size of a private jet, will be dropped and then ignites its rocket-powered engine to ascend at Mach 3 beyond the 50 miles (80 kilometers) of altitude considered the edge of space by US agencies.
