Billionaire Richard Branson’s trip to space and back sets stage for astro-tourism

Bold billionaire Richard Branson sped into space aboard his own winged rocket ship on Sunday, bringing astrotourism one step closer to reality and beating his far richer rival Jeff Bezos.

Nearly 71-year-old Branson and five crew members from his space tourism company Virgin Galactic reached an altitude of 83.5 miles above the New Mexico desert – enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and the curvature of the earth – and then slid back Home to a runway.

“The whole thing was just magical,” said a jubilant Branson when he returned aboard the gleaming white space plane called Unity.

The brief on-and-off flight – the spacecraft’s portion only lasted about 15 minutes, or about as long as Alan Shepard’s first U.S. space flight in 1961 – was a zippy and unabashed commercial plug for Virgin Galactic, which plans to pay off Customers on a spin next year.

Branson was the first person to take off in his own spaceship, beating Bezos, the richest person in the world, by nine days. He also became the second seventy-year-old to fly into space. Astronaut John Glenn flew the shuttle in 1998 at the age of 77.

Bezos congratulated, adding, “I can’t wait to join the club!” – although he also visited Twitter a few days earlier to enumerate how he believes his company’s tourist rides will be better.

With about 500 spectators, including Branson’s family, Unity was carried up under a twin-fuselage aircraft. Then, at an altitude of about 8 1/2 miles, the Unity detached itself from the mothership and fired its engine, reaching more than Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, as it penetrated the edge of space.

The crowd cheered, jumped in the air, and hugged as the rocket plane landed on earth. Branson clenched his fists as he stepped onto the catwalk and walked over to his family, hugging his wife and children, and hugging his grandchildren.

In this photo provided by Virgin Galactic, the VSS Unity rocket engine burns over the earth on Sunday, July 11, 2021. Entrepreneur Richard Branson and five crew members from his space tourism company Virgin Galactic reached an altitude of approximately 53 miles (88 kilometers). over the New Mexico desert, enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the earth. (Virgin Galactic via AP)(Not in the credits)

Mike Moses, a top manager at Virgin Galactic, said the flight was perfect and the ship looked immaculate, other than a few issues with transmitting video images from the cabin.

“That was an amazing achievement,” said former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a former commander of the International Space Station, from the sidelines. “I’m just so excited about what this open door is going to lead to now. It’s a great moment. “

Virgin Galactic conducted three previous test flights into space with only two or three crew members.

The flamboyant, London-born founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways wasn’t due to fly until later this summer. But he reassigned himself to an earlier flight after Bezos announced on July 20, the 52nd Branson denied trumping Bezos.

Branson’s other major rival in the space tourism race among the world’s richest men, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, came to New Mexico to watch and congratulated Branson on a “great flight.”

Bezos’ Blue Origin company intends to send tourists past the so-called Karman Line 100 kilometers above the earth, recognized by international aerospace associations as the threshold to space.

But NASA, the Air Force, the Federal Aviation Administration, and some astrophysicists believe that the boundary between the atmosphere and space begins at 50 miles (80 kilometers).

The risks to Branson and his crew were highlighted in 2007 when three workers died in a rocket engine test in California’s Mojave Desert, and in 2014 when a Virgin Galactic rocket plane broke apart during a test flight, killing one pilot and the other.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson (left) sprinkles champagne on crew member Beth Moses as he celebrates their flight from Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, NM, Sunday, July 11, 2021. (AP Photo / Andres Leighton)(Andres Leighton)

As a showman, Branson insisted on a worldwide livestream of the flight on Sunday morning and invited celebrities and former astronauts from the space station to the company’s Spaceport America base in New Mexico. R&B singer Khalid played his new single “New Normal” – a nod to the dawn of space tourism – while CBS host Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” acted as master of ceremonies.

Before climbing aboard, Branson, who kitesurf the English Channel and tried to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, signed the astronaut’s log and cracked: “The name is Branson. Sir Richard Branson. Astronaut double-oh-one. License to thrill. “

But when asked if he’s planning any more adventures, Branson said he will “definitely take a break for now” because “I wasn’t sure it would be fair to get my family through another”. He said he believes he holds the record because he was pulled out of the sea in a helicopter five times.

Virgin Galactic already has more than 600 reservations from would-be space tourists, with tickets initially priced at $ 250,000 each. And upon his return to Earth, Branson announced a raffle for two seats on a trip to Virgin Galactic. Blue Origin is waiting for the flight from Bezos before the ticket prices are announced.

Kerianne Flynn, who signed up for Virgin Galactic in 2011, had butterflies ahead of the launch on Sunday.

“I think there will be nothing like going there and looking back on earth, which is what I look forward to the most,” she said. She added, “Hopefully the next generations can explore what’s up there.”

Blue Origin and Musks SpaceX both fly Apollo style, using capsules on rockets instead of an airborne, reusable spaceplane.

SpaceX, which is already sending astronauts to the space station for NASA and building lunar and Mars ships, plans to take tourists on more than short flights of fancy. Instead, customers will go into orbit around the earth for days, with seats running into the millions. The company’s first private flight is scheduled for September.

Musk himself has not committed himself to going into space anytime soon

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, center, is greeted by schoolchildren before boarding the rocket plane that will take him from Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, on Sunday, July 11, 2021 Edge of space will fly. (AP Photo / Andres Leighton)(Andres Leighton)

Joning Branson on the flight were:

* Dave “Mac” Mackay, chief pilot. He is one of the early employees of Virgin Galactic. He is a former Royal Air Force test pilot and Boeing 747 aviator with Branson-backed Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. Mackay, who grew up in a rural village in northern Scotland, was the first Scot to go into space.

* Michael “Sooch” Masucci, pilot. He is a retired Lt. Col. in the U.S. Air Force with over 10,000 hours of experience in the U-2 and F-16 jets, along with dozens of other types of aircraft. He joined Virgin in 2013 and flew into space for the first time in 2019.

* Sirisha Bandla, Virginia’s vice president of government affairs. She will test her “research experience” during the flight with a plant experiment from the University of Florida. Born in Guntur, in the southern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh, she will be the second Indian-American woman to travel in space.

* Colin Bennett, a Virgin Galactic engineer. He will evaluate the cabin procedures during the test flight. Bennett worked for Virgin Galactic as a plant engineer in California for six years, according to his LinkedIn page. Previously, he was an engineer at Virgin Atlantic.

* Beth Moses, Virgin’s chief astronaut instructor. She undertakes her second space flight after a trip in February 2019. The flight made Moses the 571st person to travel into space, according to Virgin Galactic. She will be the test director on Sunday and the cabin manager. Moses worked for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for 24 years before joining the company. Her husband, Mike Moses, is Virgin Galactic’s president for space missions and security.

Justin Bachman, Bloomberg

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