Virgin Galactic, a space tourism company, has confirmed that its founder Richard Branson will fly on the company’s next test trip on July 11th.
Branson’s revised flight date coincides with Jeff Bezos’s planned flight in his own space tourism rocket on July 20th, setting up a mostly symbolic battle between two billionaires racing to legitimize their space tourism rockets.
Branson, 70, wasn’t scheduled to fly on Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane for another two tests until Thursday, when the business announced he’d fly on July 11th with four mission specialists and two pilots, “testing the private astronaut experience.”
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 https://t.co/x0ksfnuEQ3 #Unity22 pic.twitter.com/GWskcMSXyA
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 1, 2021
The Unity 22 mission will be Virgin Galactic’s fourth crewed test flight of the VSS Unity, a spaceplane that launches from a carrier aircraft in mid-flight and ascends into the edge of space to provide passengers with a few minutes of weightlessness.
The business stated in a statement that it will be the “first to transport a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including the Company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, who will be testing the private astronaut experience.”
Unity, which has been tested 22 times and can carry up to six passengers and two pilots, was most recently tested at Virgin Galactic’s opulent Spaceport America outpost in New Mexico.
This year, Virgin Galactic will conduct three more test flights, including Branson’s, before launching its first revenue-generating trip for the Italian Air Force. The company currently has 600 paid reservations for future space flights, with each ticket costing roughly $250,000.
Virgin Galactic announced the fourth crew member for its first crewed New Shepard flight on the same day that Blue Origin announced the fourth crew member for its first crewed New Shepard flight.
Last Monday, the FAA approved Virgin Galactic to fly customers in space as part of a revision to the company’s commercial space transportation operator license, marking the first time the FAA approved a spaceline to fly passengers.
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