Billionaire Branson flies into space on Virgin Galactic flight

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NM, July 11 (Reuters) – British billionaire Richard Branson climbed more than 80 miles above the New Mexico desert on Sunday in his Virgin Galactic rocket plane and returned safely to the vehicle’s first full test flight in space, a milestone symbol for a company he started 17 years ago.

Branson, one of six Virgin Galactic Holding Inc (SPCE.N) employees attached for the ride, touted the mission as a forerunner of a new era in space tourism, with the company he founded in 2004 ready to go. to begin commercial operations next year.

“We’re here to make space more accessible to everyone,” said an exuberant Branson, 70, shortly after kissing his grandchildren after the flight. “Welcome to the dawn of a new space age.”

The theft’s success also gave the flamboyant entrepreneur the right to brag about a high-profile rivalry with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos, the Amazon online sales mogul (AMZN.O) who had hoped to steal from the robbery. first in space aboard the rocket of his own space company.

“Congratulations on the flight,†Bezos said on Instagram. “I can’t wait to join the club! “

Space industry executives, future customers and other supporters were on hand for a festive gathering to witness the launch, which was broadcast live in a presentation hosted by late-night TV comedian Stephen Colbert. Another billionaire space industry pioneer, Elon Musk, who is also the founder of electric car maker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) joined the reception.

Grammy-nominated R&B singer Khalid performed his upcoming single “New Normal” after the robbery.

The sparkling white spaceplane was airlifted attached to the underside of Spaceport America’s VMS Eve twin-fuselage jet (named after Branson’s late mother), a state-owned facility near the aptly named town by Truth or Consequences. Virgin Galactic rents a large part of the facility.

Reaching its high altitude launch point at around 46,000 feet, the passenger rocket VSS Unity was freed from the mothership and fell as the crew ignited their rocket, sending it straight up at supersonic speed into the darkness of space about 53 miles (86 km) high.

The spacecraft’s trail was clearly visible from the ground as it rose into the upper atmosphere, to the cheers of the crowd below.

At the top of the climb with the rocket stopped, the crew then experienced a few minutes of microgravity, before the spacecraft went into reentry mode and began a glider descent to a return runway at the spaceport. The whole flight lasted about an hour.

“I was once a kid with a dream watching the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship watching our beautiful Earth,†Branson said in a video from space.

Returning to a celebration with supporters from a stage outside of Virgin Galactic’s Gateway to Space complex at the spaceport, he and his teammates doused themselves in champagne.

Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield pinned Virgin-produced astronaut wings to the blue flight suits worn by Branson and his team. The official Federal Aviation Administration fender pins will be featured later, a company spokesperson said.

HIGH COST TICKETS

Virgin Galactic said it plans at least two more test flights of the spaceplane in the coming months before starting regular commercial operation in 2022. One of those flights will carry four Italian astronauts in formation, according to the CEO of the company Michael Colglazier.

He said 600 wealthy future citizen astronauts had also booked reservations, priced at around $ 250,000 per ticket, for the euphoria of supersonic flight, weightlessness and the spectacle of spaceflight.

Branson said he ultimately aims to reduce the price to around $ 40,000 per seat as the company increases its service, realizing greater economies of scale. Colglazier said he plans to eventually build a fleet large enough to accommodate around 400 flights per year at the spaceport.

Swiss investment bank UBS has estimated the potential value of the space tourism market at $ 3 billion per year by 2030.

It is essential to prove that rocket travel is safe for the public.

An earlier prototype of the Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed during a test flight over the Mojave Desert in California in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.

SPACIAL RACE

Branson’s participation in Sunday’s flight, announced just over a week ago, characterized his character as a daredevil executive whose various Virgin brands – from airlines to music companies – have long been associated with his exploits as a crossing the ocean aboard sailboats and hot air balloons.

His adventure also eclipsed rival astrotourism company Blue Origin and its founder, Bezos, in what has been popularized as the “billionaire space raceâ€. Bezos is scheduled to fly aboard his own suborbital rocket, the New Shepard, later this month.

Branson insisted that he and Bezos were friendly rivals and not rushing to fight in space.

“We wish Jeff the best and he gets up and enjoys his flight,†Branson said at a press conference after the flight.

Blue Origin, however, denigrated Virgin Galactic as falling short of a true spaceflight experience, claiming that unlike Unity, Bezos’ New Shepard exceeds the 62 mile (100 km) mark, called the Kármán Line, established. by an international aeronautic. body as defining the boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space.

“New Shepard was designed to fly over the Kármán Line, so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name,†Blue Origin said in a series of Twitter posts on Friday.

However, both the US space agency NASA and the US Air Force define an astronaut as anyone who has flown more than 50 miles (80 km).

A third player in the space tourism industry, Musk’s SpaceX, plans to send its first fully civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September, having already launched numerous cargo and astronaut payloads to the International Space Station for NASA.

The two pilots of the space plane were Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci. The other three mission specialists were Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, Chief Operating Engineer of Virgin Galactic; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of research operations and government affairs.

All of them later recounted being mesmerized by the view through the windows of Unity. Mackay described the immense darkness of space against the luminosity of the Earth’s surface, “separated by the beautiful blue atmosphere, which is very complex and very thin.”

“The cameras don’t do him justice,” he told reporters. “You have to see it with your own eyes.”

Reporting by Steve Gorman Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa Shumaker

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