Known for his marketing stunts as well as a keen acumen on the next big opportunity, Virgin’s Richard Branson went all in to promote his astro-tourism venture. And he did so by launching himself into the final frontier.
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Branson's Virgin Galactic launched the company's passenger rocket - the VSS Unity - on Sunday (July 11), with a fully crewed test flight to the edge of space. The British billionaire and founder of the enterprise was among the six individuals strapping in for the ride.
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Virgin's Unity 22 mission marks the 22nd test flight of the spacecraft, and the company's fourth crewed mission beyond Earth's atmosphere. It was the first to carry a full complement of space travellers- two pilots and four mission specialists, Branson among them.
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Although the mission is seen as a potential milestone to help transform rocket travel into a mainstream commercial venture, spaceflight remains an inherently hazardous endeavor. An earlier prototype of the Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed during a test flight over California's Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.
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Branson's official job on his flight is to evaluate the private astronaut experience, and his observations will be used to enhance the journey for all future astronaut customers, according to Virgin.
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Bezos, founder of online retail giant Amazon and right up there on the rich list, is scheduled to fly aboard a suborbital rocketship, the New Shepard, tonight. He is the founder of the space travel company Blue Origin.
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Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, along with fellow billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's SpaceX, are competing head-to-head in the emerging business of space tourism. Musk has had quite a head start - SpaceX plans to send its first all-civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September. It has already launched numerous cargo payloads and astronauts to the International Space Station.
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"It's honestly not a race," Branson told Reuters in an interview earlier this week. "If it's a race, it's a race to produce wonderful spaceships that can make many more people be able to access space. And I think that's both of our aims."
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On Sunday, the Virgin Galactic’s two pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, controlled the ignition and shutoff of the rocket engine, and activated the vehicle's tail maneuver for re-entry. The three other mission specialists were Beth Moses, the company's chief astronaut instructor; the lead operations engineer Colin Bennett; and Sirisha Bandla, a research operations and government affairs vice-president.
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Assuming the mission goes well, Virgin has said it plans two further test flights of the spaceplane before beginning commercial services next year. The company has said it has received more than 600 flight reservations, priced at around $250,000 per ticket, but hopes eventually to slash the cost of each seat to $40,000.
Image Credit: AFP
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