Richard Branson tweets from his spaceship VSS Unity
Giving a glimpse of the flight and sending across a motivating message to the younger generations, Richard Branson took to Twitter and shared his thoughts.
Published Date - 12 July 2021, 06:05 PM
Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group, hurtled into space aboard in his own Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity on Sunday, days before his fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos will travel into space on July 20. Branson, who is now also a commercial astronaut too, is currently the first person in the world to go to space in his own ship.
Seventy-one-year-old Branson and his five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space-tourism company reached an altitude of about 53 miles (88 kilometres) over the New Mexico desert, beyond the boundary of space according to the United States, allowing the passengers to experience weightlessness and admire the Earth’s curvature. The brief up-and-down flight of the rocket ship’s portion took only about 15 minutes.
Giving a glimpse of the flight and sending across a motivating message to the younger generations, Richard Branson took to Twitter and shared his thoughts. “I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do,” he wrote on Twitter along with a video of him and his crewmates having a weightless ride in space.
The company Virgin Galactic now has plans to start taking paying customers on joyrides.
“Space is for all humanity, which is why we’re giving YOU the chance to win 2 seats on one of the first @virgingalactic flights to space! ENTER NOW – all donations go to non-profit @spacehumanity: bit.ly/3wkWX8R(sic),” he wrote announcing a ride for paying customers.
Elon Musk buys a ticket on the Virgin Galactic
Billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk has, however, bought a ticket on the Virgin Galactic. A spokesman for Virgin Galactic confirmed to ‘Wall Street Journal’ that Musk had bought a ticket for his own space ride.
It is unclear how far up the waiting list Musk is for a seat. Virgin Galactic has reported that its tickets have sold for $250,000 (Rs 1.86 crore) each, and the company has collected $80 million in sales and deposits.
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