Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson Calls Upcoming Space Flight a ‘Pinch Me Moment’


As Virgin Galactic finalizes plans for founder Richard Branson to join five others on a test flight to edge of space on July 11, the British billionaire said his wife may be nervous about the launch, but he himself was not in the least afraid.

“I have been looking forward to this for 17 years”, Branson said Tuesday in an interview from Spaceport America near the remote town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

He said pre-flight preparations only added to the excitement ahead of the scheduled launch on Sunday, which will take place a week before his 71st birthday.

“Every moment is a pinching moment for me,” he said.

The launch of Virgin Galactic’s The VSS Unity rocket plane over the desert will mark the space tourism company’s fourth crewed test mission beyond Earth’s atmosphere. But it will be the first to carry a full complement of space travelers, consisting of Branson, two pilots and three mission specialists.

Unity will be launched at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet from a Virgin Galactic carrier aircraft, then fly with its own rocket power to the frontier of space, where the crew will experience approximately 4 minutes weightlessness before starting a descent to Earth.

Travel is not without risks inherent in space flights. An earlier prototype of the rocket plane crashed during a test flight in 2014 over the Mojave Desert in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other.

When asked how his family reacted to last week’s news that he would be joining Sunday’s crew, Branson said his children – adventurers like him – were excited, but suggested that his wife, Joan, while arguing, was more suspicious.

“My wife is the kind of person who would be terrified on a Virgin Atlantic plane,” he said. “She’s the last person who would want to do something like this. But she’s known me since I tried to cross the Atlantic, the Pacific or the world in a hot air balloon, and she still seems to like us.”

He laughed, quoting his wife saying, “‘If you’re stupid enough to do these wonderful things, you can do it, but I won’t go to your funeral.'”

By joining the robbery on July 11, Branson positioned himself to beat rival entrepreneur Jeff Bezos within nine days.

Bezos, founder of the retail giant Amazon, will be aboard the suborbital flight of his own private rocket company New Shepard spacecraft, Blue origin, July 20.

Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, as well as Elon musk SpaceX, are in direct competition in the emerging space tourism sector.

Branson denied that he and Bezos were in a contest to see who got on first, however.

“I just wish him and the people around him the best. I can’t wait to tell him about his run when he comes back,” Branson said of Bezos. “I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, and we both wished each other good luck.”

The success of both companies is seen as essential to fostering a booming industry that ultimately aims to mainstream space tourism, at least for well-paid customers.

Virgin said two more test flights of its vehicle are planned before the company begins commercial service in 2022, and Branson said it plans to offer paid flights on a “regular basis” next year. .

He also said he believes there is plenty of room in the market for his business and Bezos’ company to compete.

“None of us will be able to build enough spaceships to meet the demand,” Branson said.

© Thomson Reuters 2021


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