Virgin Galactic’s Branson flies into space in a rocket plane Reuters

Steve Gorman

The truth or consequences, New Mexico (Reuters)-On Sunday, British billionaire Richard Branson flew more than 50 miles over the desert of New Mexico on a Virgin Galactic rocket plane and returned safely to the vehicle for the first time. The test flight is a symbolic milestone. He started his own business 17 years ago.

Branson is one of six employees of Virgin Galactic Holdings. He touted this mission as a pioneer in a new era of space tourism. The company he founded in 2004 is ready to start commercial operations next year.

Branson, 70, said shortly after the flight: “We are here to make space easier for everyone.” “Welcome to the dawn of the new space age.”

The success of this flight also allowed the gorgeous entrepreneur to brag about himself in a widely publicized competition with billionaire Jeff Bezos, the billionaire Amazon (NASDAQ: NASDAQ). Daq Stock Code:) Online retail giant, he once hoped to fly into space on the rocket of his own space company.

“Congratulations on this flight,” Bezos said on Instagram. “Can’t wait to join the club!”

Aerospace executives, future customers, and other wishers were all present at the festival party to witness the launch, and the demonstration hosted by late-night TV comedian Stephen Colbert was broadcast live. Among the attendees was the billionaire and aerospace industry pioneer Elon Musk, who is also the founder of electric car manufacturer Tesla (NASDAQ:) Inc..

The Grammy-nominated R&B singer Khalid took the stage to perform his upcoming single “New Normal” after the flight.

On Sunday, when this gleaming white space plane took off from the U.S. Spaceport, it was connected to the bottom of the twin-fuselage jet VMS Eve (named after Branson’s late mother), which is located in a veritable Truth or consequences. State-owned facilities near the town. Virgin Galactic leased most of the 18,000 acre site.

After reaching a high-altitude launch site of approximately 46,000 feet, the VSS Unity passenger plane was released from the mothership and fell when the crew ignited the rocket, causing it to rise at supersonic speeds to a height of approximately 53 miles (85.9 kilometers).

The space plane is clearly visible from the ground as it soars in the upper atmosphere and is clearly visible from the cheers of the crowd below.

At the apex of the climb when the rocket was off, the crew then experienced a few minutes of microgravity, then the shuttle switched to reentry mode and began to glide down to the runway back to the spaceport. The entire flight, from takeoff to landing, lasted about an hour.

Branson said to hundreds of cheering supporters on the stage outside the Spaceport Virgin Galactic Space Gateway: “I have dreamed of this since I was a kid. Nothing can prepare you for the sights you see from space. Use champagne with each other.

This bold executive had previously crossed the ocean in a hot air balloon and broke the world record.

Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield pinned Virgin Atlantic astronaut wings to the blue flight suits worn by Branson and his team. A company spokesperson said that the official wing pins of the Federal Aviation Administration will be available at a later date.

High-priced ticket

Virgin Atlantic said it plans to conduct at least two further test flights of the space shuttle in the next few months before starting regular commercial operations in 2022.

Hundreds of wealthy astronauts who want to become citizens have already booked air tickets, each costing approximately US$250,000.

UBS, the Swiss-based investment bank, estimates that by 2030, the potential value of the space tourism market will reach US$3 billion per year.

Prove that rocket travel is the key to public safety.

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

Space race

His hitchhiker also defeated rival astronomy travel company Blue Origin and its founder Bezos, a game known as the “Billionaire Space Race.”

Bezos has been planning to fly on his own suborbital rocket, the New Shepard, later this month.

Branson insists that he and Bezos are friendly opponents, not a personal competition to defeat each other in space.

However, Blue Origin belittles Virgin Galactic, thinking that it does not have a real space flight experience, saying that, unlike Unity, Bezos’s new Shepard is located 62 miles (100 kilometers) high, called the Carmen Line, and is called the Carmen Line. Aerospace companies set objects to define the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space.

“The new Shepard was designed to fly over the Carmen line, so there is no asterisk next to our astronaut’s name,” Blue Origin said in a series of Twitter posts on Friday.

However, both NASA and the U.S. Air Force define an astronaut as anyone who has a flight altitude of more than 50 miles (80 kilometers).

The third participant in the space race, Musk’s SpaceX, plans to send its first all-civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September. It has previously launched a large number of cargo payloads and payloads for NASA to the International Space Station. astronaut.

The two pilots of this space plane are Dave McKay and Michael Masucci. The other three mission experts are Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, chief operating engineer, Virgin Galactic; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of research operations and government affairs.

(Illustration: Virgin Galactic’s manned spacecraft-https://graphics.reuters.com/SPACE-EXPLORATION/VIRGINGALACTIC/xklpyxlkwvg/Virgin-galactic.jpg)