Richard Branson’s spacecraft has taken off and gone into space

4:40 pm: Richard Branson’s spacecraft takes off and goes into space!

He must reach an altitude of about 50 minutes before releasing the ship hanging beneath him, igniting his own engine until it reaches space.

4:10 pm: Branson reaches space

The millionaire came to greet the crowd before boarding the VSS Unity ship.

4pm: Richard Branson, a hothead millionaire

The eccentric 70-year-old billionaire, the founder of the Virgin Group (whose operations range from an airline to a gym), has been growing sports exploits and growing his hothead image for a long time. “When I was a boy, I wanted to go into space. I registered the Virgin Galactic name because it seemed impossible to my generation, with the intention of creating a company that would make it possible,” Richard wrote a few days before departure.

In 2014 almost came to an end: a plane crash of a Virgin Galactic ship caused the death of one pilot, significantly delaying the project. Since then, the VSS Unity spacecraft – an example of the spaceship model – has already reached space three times, in 2018, 2019 and May, on a plane with pilots, and even three times in 2019 with a passenger.

3:25 pm: Departure late at 4:30 pm.

Departure was delayed due to the weather there. It is now scheduled for 8:30 am local time (2:30 pm GMT, 4:30 pm in France).

3:15 pm: Elon Musk attends departure

The founder of Amazon, the boss of other big competitor SpaceX Elon Musk, announced on Twitter that he would be joining the plane this Sunday. “I’ll see you, congratulations to you,” he told Richard Branson.

Zero Gravity on a Virgin Ship This Sunday billionaire Richard Branson will finally fly a few minutes into space from New Mexico to the United States: he always dreamed of it and founded his own company 17 years ago to implement it. Galaxy ship.

Britain hopes to push the new space tourism industry off the ground for good. But beat Jeff Bezos and win the title of first millionaire to cross this final frontier, thanks to the ship of a company he founded.

Jeff Bezos’ flight is scheduled for July 20

The second trip will be made by Blue Origin on July 20th. The new Shepherd rocket will take off vertically from West Texas. The capsule will split at an altitude of about 75 km and continue its path up to an altitude of 100 km – the Kerman line, which marks the beginning of space according to the International Conference. On board, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has paid $ 28 million along with his brother Mark, 82-year-old former pilot Wally Funk and the mysterious winner of the auction. To participate.

“It’s a wonderful and exciting coincidence that we’re going the same month,” Richard Branson said Washington Post, July 11, At the last minute of his theft date, this announcement confirmed that Amazon’s founder was “not really” there.