Branson denied he was trying to outdo Bezos.īranson’s other chief rival in the space-tourism race among the world’s richest men, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, came to New Mexico to watch and congratulated Branson for a “beautiful flight.”īezos’ Blue Origin company intends to send tourists past the so-called Karman line 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth, which is recognized by international aviation and aerospace federations as the threshold of space.īut NASA, the Air Force, the Federal Aviation Administration and some astrophysicists consider the boundary between the atmosphere and space to begin 50 miles (80 kilometers) up. But he assigned himself to an earlier flight after Bezos announced plans to ride his own rocket into space from Texas on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The flamboyant, London-born founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways wasn’t supposed to fly until later this summer. Virgin Galactic conducted three previous test flights into space with crews of just two or three. “I’m just so delighted at what this open door is going to lead to now. “That was an amazing accomplishment,” former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a one-time commander of the International Space Station, said from the sidelines. Mike Moses, a top executive at Virgin Galactic, said that apart from some problems with the transmission of video images from inside the cabin, the flight was perfect, and the ship looked pristine. Branson pumped his fists as he stepped out onto the runway and ran toward his family, bear-hugging his wife and children and scooping up his grandchildren in his arms.
Spectators cheered, jumped into the air and embraced as the rocket plane touched down on Earth. Then, at an altitude of about 8 1/2 miles (13 kilometers), Unity detached from the mother ship and fired its engine, reaching more than Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, as it pierced the edge of space. With about 500 people watching, including Branson’s family, Unity was carried aloft underneath a twin-fuselage aircraft.
Astronaut John Glenn flew on the shuttle at age 77 in 1998.īezos sent his congratulations, adding: “Can’t wait to join the club!” - though he also took to Twitter a couple of days earlier to enumerate the ways in which be believes his company’s tourist rides will be better. He also became the second septuagenarian to go into space. Branson became the first person to blast off in his own spaceship, beating Bezos, the richest person on the planet, by nine days.
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