Richard Branson Reaches Space On Virgin Galactic’S Vss Unity

Billionaire Richard Branson makes a statement when crew on the Virgin Galactics passenger rocket VSS Unity reaches the edge of space in microgravity at Spaceport America, New Mexico, United States, on 11 July 2021 (Spaceport America 2021). Virgin Galactic founder and CEO Richard Branson gathers Virgin Galactic employees on February 19, 2016 in Mojave Air and Space Port in front of the new spaceship, two VSS - "Unity" during a roll-out ceremony for the new spaceship on February 19th, 2016.

In this still from the video, billionaire Richard Branson and his crew are shown aboard the Virgin Galactics passenger rocket VSS Unity as they begin their untethered ascent to the edge of space at Spaceport America (Truth and Consequences) in New Mexico, USA on 11 July 2021. It is the fourth spaceflight for Virgin Galactic, the second this year and the first with more than one passenger.

In reality or consequence, the lively entrepreneur Richard Branson raced into space in his boldest adventure yet with his own winged rocket ship on Sunday, beating his billionaire colleague Jeff Bezos. Branson and five crew members of his space company Virgin Galactic reached an altitude of 88 kilometers above the New Mexico Desert, enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness, see the curvature of the earth and glide to a runway. Unity detached from the mothership at an altitude of 13 kilometers and fired its engines to reach more than Mach 3 as it pierced the edge of space. Crowds cheered and shouted as Unity approached the runway. His aerial launch appeared to offer a zoom of around 50 miles, giving Virgin Galactic owner Richard Branson and his crew three minutes of weightlessness and a spectacular view of Earth before crashing in a spiral descent to land on the Virgin New Mexico launch site.

On July 11, Virgin Galactic took a giant leap in commercial suborbital spaceflight. But the rocket was blown up by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who plans a suborbital spaceflight on July 20 with his own Blue Origin New Shepard spacecraft and the two companies are now competing in the burgeoning commercial space market for passengers. Virgin Galactic is launching its first manned flight with its Unity.Two spacecraft, Unity and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

Richard Branson took off with three crew members and two pilots for his first manned flight of his SpaceShipTwo Unity spacecraft, which took off from the launch site of Virgin Galactic's launch vehicle, VMS Eve.

Richard Branson and his crew will get astronaut wings on a journey designed to make manned spaceflight seem extraordinary. Credit Credit Credit Associated Press / Reuters Richard Branson launched into space on Sunday. He was the first man to fly in a homemade spaceship, defeating Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos within days.

British billionaire Richard Branson flew his Virgin Galactic rocket more than 50 miles over the New Mexico desert on Sunday and returned from a crewed test flight to space - a symbolic milestone for a project he began 17 years ago. The success of VSS Unity gave Branson bragging rights in the high-profile rivalry with the billionaire Jeff Bezos, Amazon Amzno, the online retail mogul who hopes to fly his own rocket into space. Branson, who owns the Virgin Galactic space company, has touted the test flight as a precursor to a new era of space tourism. The company is poised to begin commercial operations later this year.

Richard Branson went from the space baron to "where nobody else has gone" when he flew in a space plane operated by his rocket company Virgin Galactic more than 50 miles above Earth. Branson's VSS Unity, as the spacecraft is called, has performed more than 20 test flights - three of them to the edge of space - and has grounded five of its employees and carried astronauts. Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 with the goal of developing a winged spaceship capable of carrying eight people - including two pilots and six passengers - on rocket-driven flights more than 50 miles above Earth.

Founded by Richard Branson's Virgin Group and 70% owned by Burt Rutan Scaled Composites, the Starship company TSC owns 30% and builds commercial spaceships for launch, aircraft and space.

The first test flight of manned space flight had a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists. Besides Branson, the crew included Beth Moses, Virgin Galactics Chief's astronaut instructing officer, Colin Bennet, Virgin Galactic's Senior Operations Engineer, and Sirisha Bandla, Virgin Galactic Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations. The VSS Unity was being transported aboard a $44,000 jet, the mother ship Eve, when it was released to reach its suborbital altitude over New Mexico.

The skies over Spaceport America in southern New Mexico were lightning fast last night. The company's SpaceShipTwo spacecraft was dropped from the center of Virgin Galactics' twin-fuselage WhiteKnight plane at 45,000 feet about 50 minutes after take-off. Moments later, it detonated its only rocket engine and flew to the edge of space, reaching 535 miles above the ground.

The postponement means today's launch for the planned flight, which would have sent the crew of a spacecraft called VSS Unity flying 50 miles above Earth, has been pushed back to 90 minutes. Branson turned 71 this week and had been planning the flight since the summer. He stated that the entire flight would take 90 minutes, including ascending to the take-off position, releasing into space, flying back to Earth and landing on the runway in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Virgin Galactic had planned to launch a webcast at 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) but bad weather delayed the deployment of the Unity spacecraft from its carrier plane to its hangar