REUTERS: Richard Branson is prepared to advertise his expanding astro-tourism enterprise by launching himself to the final frontier, decades after burnishing his character as a wealthy daredevil mogul in a series of yachting and hot-air balloon trips. Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holding is set to launch the VSS Unity, a passenger rocket plane, on its first fully crewed test voyage to the edge of space on Sunday (Jul 11), with the British billionaire founder among the six passengers.
The glittering white spaceplane will be carried to a height of 50,000 feet by a twin-fuselage carrier jet called VMS Eve (named after Branson’s mother), where Unity will be released and rocketed into an almost vertical climb through Earth’s atmosphere.
The crew will experience a few minutes of weightlessness near the pinnacle of their mission, some 89 kilometers over the New Mexico desert, before falling back to Earth.
READ: Jeff Bezos chooses an 82-year-old female aerospace pioneer to accompany him into space
The voyage will last around 90 minutes if everything goes according to plan, and it will terminate on a runway at Spaceport America near the appropriately named town of Truth or Consequences.
Virgin’s Unity 22 mission is the spacecraft’s 22nd test flight and its fourth crewed journey beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
It will, however, be the first to transport a full crew of space tourists, including two pilots and four “mission specialists,” including Branson.
PUBLICITY AND MILESTONE
Despite the fact that the trip is being hailed as a potential watershed moment in the transformation of citizen rocket travel into a mainstream commercial activity, spaceflight remains a risky endeavor.
During a test flight over California’s Mojave Desert in 2014, a previous prototype of the Virgin Galactic rocket jet crashed, killing one pilot and critically wounding another.
If successful, Branson will be able to brag about beating off rival Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin space venture in what has been dubbed the “billionaire space race.” Bezos, the founder of online retailer Amazon.com, is scheduled to ride aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocketship later this month. According to Virgin’s publicity materials, Branson’s official role on the voyage is to “review the private astronaut experience,” and his views will be used to “improve the journey for all future astronaut clients.” The Branson and Bezos ride-alongs, though, were both “a bit of a publicity gimmick,” according to Marco Caceres, a senior space analyst for the Virginia-based research firm Teal Group. READ: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, will be the first person to fly into space with Blue Origin. “Their efforts will be taken more seriously if they succeed,” Caceres added. “There are plenty of multimillionaires in the globe who would want to go on an adventure as long as they believe it is somewhat safe,” says the author. In the developing sector of space tourism, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, together with fellow billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are battling head-to-head, albeit Musk has a significant head start. SpaceX has previously delivered multiple cargo cargoes and humans to the International Space Station, and expects to launch its first all-civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September. Branson, 70, claims that there is enough demand from affluent would-be citizen astronauts to go around, and that he had no intention of competing with Bezos. “THIS IS NOT A RACE” In an interview with Reuters earlier this week, Branson said, “It’s honestly not a race.” “If there is a race, it is to create fantastic spaceships that will allow many more people to visit space. And I believe that is what we both want to achieve.” Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, the spaceplane’s two pilots, will handle the ship’s rocket engine firing and shutoff, as well as the vehicle’s “feathered” tail maneuver for re-entry. Beth Moses, the company’s principal astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, Virgin Galactic’s senior operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, a research operations and government affairs vice president, are the three other mission specialists. READ: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ trip to space sells for US$28 million The Virgin brand, which includes Branson’s airline and previous record label, has long been associated with its colorful founder’s daring escapades. In 1986, Branson broke a new record for the quickest boat crossing of the Atlantic, a year after his first effort ended in a Royal Air Force helicopter rescue after his vessel capsized. In 1987, he set a new record by crossing the Atlantic by hot-air balloon, but he had to be rescued from the sea once more. He went on to break at least two more air-balloon speed records, but none of his three attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon were successful. Branson expressed his excitement for Sunday’s flight this week, saying, “I just don’t think there’s anything there to be afraid about.” Virgin has indicated it planned two more test flights of the spaceplane before launching commercial service next year, assuming the trip goes well. The company has received more than 600 flight reservations, with each ticket costing roughly US$250,000, but it intends to reduce the cost of each seat to US$40,000 in the future./n
