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Richard Branson to fly to space on July 11 in Virgin Galactic spaceflight, 9 days before Jeff Bezos
“When we return, I will announce something very exciting to give more people the chance to become an astronaut. Because space belongs to us all,” Richard Branson said.
In a surprise announcement, founder of the Virgin Group and English billionaire Richard Branson on Friday (IST) said that he would be flying to space on Virgin Galactic’s next test flight on July 11. And when he goes, Branson would become the first billionaire to do so, as fellow billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has his trip planned only nine days later on July 20.
“I’ve always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. On July 11, it’s time to turn that dream into a reality aboard the next @VirginGalactic spaceflight,” Branson announced in a tweet.
Along with Branson, pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci flying the VSS Unity, pilots CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer flying VMS Eve, chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett and vice president of government affairs and research operations Sirisha Bandla would also be a part of the crew.
The billionaire also announced that the spaceflight will be shared via a livestream globally by Virgin Galactic. “When we return, I will announce something very exciting to give more people the chance to become an astronaut. Because space belongs to us all,” he further said in his statement.
Also read | Thousands sign petition to stop Jeff Bezos from returning to Earth after space trip
Space race
Branson and Bezos are both popular for their interest in space and commercial flights. However, Bezos was the first to announce his trip back in last month.
On June 7, 2021, Blue Origin, the company founded by Bezos, announced that Bezos along with his brother Mark would join the winner of the auction for New Shepard’s first human flight on July 20, 2021. He would also be joined by Wally Funk, 82 years old and one of the 13 women who passed Nasa’s astronaut training program in the 1960s.
Notably, Branson has himself said that he was not interested in “racing” to space. In an interview with CNN Business, he said “People have turned it into a race. It would be very dangerous to say turn it into a race. And the moment we have every box ticked, I will go up and then we will invite some of the people who have signed up to go with us — but we honestly don't see it as a race.”
The Difference
While both the spacecrafts developed by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin will give the passengers ultimately a similar experience of a few minutes of weightlessness, they are different from each other.
The Blue Origin offers a rocket-like experience with a vertical launch followed by a capsule separating from the booster, spending four minutes at an altitude of over 100kms. Passengers could also observe the curvature of earth.
However, the Virgin Galactic is not a rocket but a larger carrier airplane that travels to a high altitude and then releases a smaller spacecraft which would reach suborbital space and glide back to earth.
(With inputs from AFP)
