03.07.2021 – 21:33
Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson plans to travel into space nine days ahead of other billionaire Jeff Bezos. Mr. Branson’s company announced this week that its next test flight will be on Sunday, July 11, and that its founder will be among the six people on board, all employees of the company.
The spacecraft will fly from New Mexico – the first to travel in full crew.
In an announcement posted on social media, Mr. Branson, who has always been on the adventure and turns 71 in a few weeks, said:
“I have always been a dreamer, my mother taught me never to give up and to aim for the stars. “This July, our dream will come true.”
last week, Virgin Galactic secured the authorization of the Federal Aviation Administration to start passenger flights. More than 600 people have already booked a space trip.
Mr. Bezos, meanwhile, plans to leave space from West Texas on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
He will travel on the debut flight of a Blue Origin passenger rocket, accompanied by his brother, a pioneering astronaut and winner of a $ 28 million charity auction.
As of June 30, Mr. Branson had not said when the rocket would be launched into space due to restrictions imposed by the company.
But he stressed that he was healthy and able to fly once his engineers approved of such a thing.
“What I can say is that when the engineers tell me I can go into space, I am ready, fit and healthy to go,” he told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Virgin Galactic launches its rocket from an airplane, reaching an altitude of approximately 88 kilometers.
Blue Origin launches its New Shepard rocket from the ground, and its capsule reaches an altitude of 106 kilometers.
Both of those heights are considered the edge of space.
Elon Musk, meanwhile, launches capsules – both for crew and cargo – into orbit around the world.
The three private space companies plan to send paid passengers into space. SpaceX will be the first to have a private flight in September.
Unlike SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are trying to send space tourists on short vertical trips – not in orbit around the world.
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin flights take about 10 minutes, with about three minutes without gravity.
But the returns are quite different: The Virgin Galactic rocket lands on a runway, as did the old NASA spacecraft, with two pilots in the cockpit.
Blue Origin automated capsules are parachuted to the surface of the desert, similar to the way NASA Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules landed in the ocean.
Their space airports are only 320 kilometers apart.
