Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson reaches space in historic flight
One giant leap for space tourism.
Richard Branson fulfilled his longtime dream of reaching space with the help of Virgin Galactic's spacecraft on Sunday, July 11.
“I have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid, and honestly nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space,” the British entrepreneur said after landing back on Earth.
Branson was on board Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity accompanied by two pilots and three Virgin Galactic employees.
The spacecraft took off in New Mexico and traveled three times the speed of sound to reach the edge of space.
Once in space, the VSS Unity did a slow backflip in microgravity as the passengers floated around weightless inside the spacecraft.
Reports said that the VSS Unity reached an altitude of 86.1 kilometers or 53.5 miles, which is about 282,000 feet.
The spacecraft successfully reentered Earth's atmosphere and landed back on Spaceport America.
Established in 2004, Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company founded by Branson under his Virgin Group Ltd.
The company aims to be a major player in the so-called space tourism industry, offering space-bound commercial flights to the public.
By reaching space, Branson edged out (at least for now) billionaire tech founders Jeff Bezos (Amazon) and Elon Musk, who are also running their own sub-orbital spaceflight services, namely, Blue Origin and SpaceX, respectively.
Branson later announced that Virgin Galactic is offering two people a chance to join one of the company's first commercial flights earmarked for early next year.
The offer is in partnership with sweepstakes company Omaze, which will donate to the non-profit group called Space For Humanity.
“It's a way of just trying to get lots of people who couldn't otherwise afford to go to space, to go to space,” said Branson.
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