Billionaire Richard Branson reaches space in his ship

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TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NM – Swashbuckling entrepreneur Richard Branson launched into space aboard his winged rocket on Sunday on his boldest adventure, beating fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Nearly 71-year-old Branson and five crew members from his Virgin Galactic space tourism company reached an altitude of approximately 53 miles (88 kilometers) over the New Mexico desert enough to experience three to four minutes of zero gravity and see the curvature of the Earth and then glided safely onto an airstrip.

The whole thing was just magical, said a jubilant Branson after the trip home aboard the elegant white space plane, called Unity.

The short up-and-down flight of the rocket part lasted only about 15 minutes, or about the time Alan Shepard’s first US spaceflight in 1961 was intended as a trustworthiness for Virgin Galactic, which plans to start taking customers paying on the rides next year.

Branson became the first person to take off with his spaceship, beating Bezos by nine days. He also became only the second in his 70s to go into space. (Astronaut John Glenn flew the shuttle at the age of 77 in 1998.)

With around 500 people watching, including Branson’s family, a double-fuselage plane with Unity attached underneath took off in the first phase of the flight. Unity then detached itself from the mothership at an altitude of about 8 1/2 miles (13 kilometers) and fired its engine, reaching more than Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, as it pierced the edge of space.

Spectators cheered, leapt into the air and hugged as the rocket plane landed. He raised his fists as he stepped out onto the catwalk and ran towards his family, hugging his wife and children and picking up his three grandchildren.

It was an extraordinary achievement, former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, once commander of the International Space Station, said on the sidelines. I am so happy with what this open door will bring now. It is a great time.

Virgin Galactic has conducted three previous test flights in space with only two or three crews.

The flamboyant founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways, born in London, was not supposed to fly until late summer. But he assigned himself to an earlier flight after Bezos announced plans to fly his own rocket into space from Texas on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Branson denied that he was trying to overcome Bezos.

Before boarding, Branson, who kitesurfed the English Channel and attempted to go around the world in a balloon, signed the astronaut’s logbook and wrote a joke: Branson’s Names. Sir Richard Branson. Double-oh one astronaut. License to excite.

One of Branson’s main rivals in the race for space tourism among the richest men in the world, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, came to New Mexico to watch the flight, wishing Branson via Twitter, Godspeed!

Bezos also sent his wishes for a safe and successful flight, though he also used Twitter to list ways he believes his company’s rides will be better.

The Bezos Blue Origin company intends to send tourists over the so-called Karman line 62 miles (100 kilometers) above the Earth, which is recognized by the international aerospace and aerospace federations as the threshold of space.

But NASA, the Air Force, the Federal Aviation Administration, and some astrophysicists consider the boundary between the atmosphere and space to start at 50 miles (80 kilometers) and up.

The risks to Branson and his crew were highlighted in 2007, when a rocket engine test in California’s Mojave Desert claimed the lives of three workers, and in 2014, when a Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed. broke during a test flight, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other.

Also the showman, Branson insisted on a global livestream of the Sunday morning flight and invited celebrities and former space station astronauts to the company’s Spaceport America base in New Mexico.

R&B singer Khalid performed his new single New Normal, a nod to the dawn of space tourism, while CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert was the master of ceremonies.

Upon his return to Earth, he announced a draw for two seats on a Virgin Galactic outing once the sightseeing flights have begun.

Virgin Galactic already has more than 600 bookings from aspiring space tourists, with tickets initially costing $ 250,000 each. Blue Origin is waiting for the Bezos flight before announcing ticket prices.

Kerianne Flynn, who signed up in 2011 to fly with Virgin Galactic, had butterflies before the Sunday launch.

I think there will be nothing like going up there and looking back on Earth, which is what I think I’m most excited about, he said. He added: Hopefully the next generations will be able to explore what’s up there. “

Musks SpaceX, which is already launching astronauts on the space station for NASA and building lunar and martian ships, plans to take tourists on more than short trips up and down. Instead, they will go into orbit around the Earth for days, with places costing millions of places. His first private flight is scheduled for September.

Musk himself hasn’t made a commitment to go into space anytime soon.

It’s a whole new horizon out there, new opportunities, new destinations, said former NASA astronaut Chris Ferguson, who commanded the last shuttle flight 10 years ago. He now works for Boeing, which is testing its own space capsule.

This really is a bit like the advent of commercial air travel, just 100 years later, Ferguson added. There is a lot to wait behind the scenes.

The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the science education department of Howard Hughes Medical Institutes. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

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