Billionaire Branson Will Fly To Space Aboard Virgin Galactic Rocket Plane

July 9 (Reuters) – Decades after polishing up his reputation as a wealthy daredevil mogul in a series of boat and hot air balloon expeditions, Richard Branson is poised to promote his burgeoning astrotourism venture by launching himself to the final frontier.

Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holding Inc (SPCE.N) will send the company’s passenger rocket plane, the VSS Unity, on its first fully-manned test flight to the edge of space on Sunday, with the British billionaire founder among the six to tie up. before the ride.

The gleaming white spaceplane will be carried by a twin-hulled jet fighter called VMS Eve (named after Branson’s mother) to an altitude of 50,000 feet, where Unity will be released and fly with rocket power in a near-vertical climb through the outer rim of the planet. atmosphere of the earth.

At the peak of its flight, some 89 km above the New Mexico desert, the crew will experience weightlessness for a few minutes before making a gliding descent to Earth.

If all goes according to plan, the flight will last about 90 minutes and end where it started — on a runway in Spaceport America near the aptly named Truth or Consequences.

Virgin’s Unity 22 mission marks the spacecraft’s 22nd test flight and the company’s fourth manned mission beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

But it will be the first to carry a full crew of space travelers, two pilots and four “mission specialists,” including Branson.

MILESTONES AND PUBLICITY

While the mission is seen as a potential milestone in helping transform civilian rocket travel into a mainstream commercial venture, spaceflight remains an inherently dangerous endeavor.

A previous Virgin Galactic rocket plane prototype crashed during a test flight over California’s Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.

If Sunday’s flight succeeds, Branson will also boast beating rival Jeff Bezos and his space company, Blue Origin, in what has been popularized as a “billionaire space race.” Bezos, founder of online retail giant Amazon.com, will board Blue Origin’s suborbital rocket ship, the New Shepard, later this month.

Branson’s official job during his flight is to “evaluate the experience of a private astronaut,” and his observations will be used to “improve the journey for all future astronaut customers,” according to Virgin’s press material.

But Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst for Virginia-based consultancy Teal Group, said Branson and Bezos’ rides were each “a bit of a publicity stunt.”

“If they succeed, their ventures will be taken more seriously,” Caceres said. “There are plenty of multimillionaires in the world who would like to go on an adventure, as long as they consider it relatively safe.”

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, along with fellow billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are competing in the nascent business of space tourism, though Musk has a big lead.

SpaceX, which plans to send its first all-civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September, has already launched numerous payloads and astronauts to the International Space Station.

Branson, 70, insists that wealthy aspiring astronauts are in high demand to travel around, and that he had no intention of surpassing Bezos.

‘NO RACE’

“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 beautiful spaceships that can give a lot more people access to space. And I think that’s both our goals.”

The spaceplane’s two pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, will control the ignition and shutdown of the ship’s rocket engine and activate the vehicle’s “feathered” tail maneuver for reentry.

The three other mission specialists are Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, Virgin Galactic’s chief operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, a vice president for research activities and government affairs.

The Virgin brand, which includes Branson’s airline and former record label, has long been associated with derring-do exploits by its flamboyant founder. Branson set a new record for the fastest boat crossing in the Atlantic in 1986, a year after his first attempt ended with a Royal Air Force helicopter rescue when his ship capsized.

In 1987, he made a record-breaking Atlantic hot air balloon crossing, though he had to be rescued again from the sea. He went on to break at least two other balloon speed records, but failed to complete one of three attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon.

As for Sunday’s flight, Branson said this week he’s excited, “and I really don’t think there’s anything to be afraid of.”

Assuming the mission goes well, Virgin has said it plans two more test flights of the spaceplane before it begins commercial service next year.

The company has said it has received more than 600 flight reservations, priced at about $250,000 per ticket, but eventually hopes to reduce the cost of each seat to $40,000.

Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Kevin Fogarty in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis

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