British billionaire Richard Branson (right in photo) will go into space on Sunday 11 July with a spacecraft from his own company Virgin Galactic, the billionaire announced on Friday. That’s nine days ahead of his rival Jeff Bezos.
The Amazon CEO who owns the space company Blue Origin has planned his first space journey on July 20. According to Branson, it is pure “coincidence” that he is now going earlier and absolutely not intended that way, he says in an interview.
Virgin Galactic announced in a statement on Friday the date of the next test flight with its SpaceShipTwo Unity, with the disclaimer: “pending weather and technical checks”.
Branson, who was supposed to be on a later flight, will be accompanied by three employees from the space company. They will investigate, among other things, “cabin conditions, seating comfort, weightlessness and view of the earth”. And all to ensure that for future astronauts, “the wonder and awe that space travel creates is as optimal as possible,” the company said.
Virgin Galactic carries out its journeys by first launching its rocket plane coupled to a normal aircraft. After disconnecting, the rocket plane then moves to the edge of the atmosphere. The SpaceShipTwo Unity has been in space three times before.
Bezos goes into space with oldest astronaut ever
Bezos announced on Thursday that the first manned flight of Blue Origin will be accompanied by the 82-year-old woman Wally Funk, as well as the winner of an auction that paid 28 million dollars (more than 23 million euros) and his brother. Funk has always wanted to be an astronaut and is now the oldest person ever to go into space.
Branson and Bezos aren’t the only billionaires involved in space travel. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also owns a space company, SpaceX. That company already carries out flights for NASA and launches commercial rockets that take satellites into space, among other things.