Sir Richard Branson has officially lived out his lifelong dream of flying into Space.
Virgin Galactic’s space plane, Unity made its safe round trip from New Mexico to the edge of space with the billionaire on board on Sunday morning, taking off at 10:30am ET and landing back at the remote airfield without a hitch by 11:45am,
The Brit, who was knighted in in 1999, and five Virgin employees– including two Unity pilots–took the test flight on the company’s fourth trip to the edge of space.
Sir Richard Branson Has Made It To Space
The first successful launch took place in 2018, following two disastrous failures causing multiple deaths that have taken place since Virgin Galactic’s founding in 2004.
The Unity- named by the late physicist Stephen Hawking- was 90 minutes late to make its historic voyage, so it seems the company IS ready for commercial flights! The delay was reportedly due to the previous night’s weather.
Multiple camera angles allowed audiences to watch the launch (almost live). Unity was attached to The White Knight in a specially designed double aircraft — nicknamed Eve, after Branson’s late mother.
After the plane reached 50,000 feet, it was released. The White Knight flew away from Unity after they were uncoupled and Unity became a rocket, piercing the Earth’s atmosphere.
The four passengers were seen having weightless fun for several minutes as Unity purposefully flipped upside down, it’s tail going into ‘feather mode’ to stabilize the vessel.
The onboard ‘guests’ could then see down to Earth through Unity’s windows. Several shots were seen by those watching the live stream.
70-year-old Branson has now officially joined a group of just shy of 600 people who have ever had the chance to leave planet Earth. Fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos, his brother, staff and a passenger who bid $4 million to take Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket to the edge of space will join the illustrious group in just 9 days.
Virgin Galactic will open its operations to ticket-paying customers in 2022 but for those wishing to experience space for themselves, it comes with a steep price. Initial tickets for the eventual space flights went for $250,000.
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