REUTERS: As Virgin Galactic finalizes arrangements for creator Richard Branson to join five people on a test journey to the edge of space on July 11, the British billionaire revealed that while his wife was apprehensive about the launch, he was not. In an interview on Tuesday from Spaceport America near the isolated town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, Branson said, “I’ve been looking forward to this for 17 years.”
Pre-flight preparations, he noted, just add to the anticipation for Sunday’s scheduled launch, which will occur one week before his 71st birthday.
“Everything about it makes me want to pinch myself,” he stated.
Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc’s VSS Unity rocket plane will launch over the desert, marking the company’s fourth crewed test voyage beyond Earth’s atmosphere. It will, however, be the first spacecraft to carry a full complement of astronauts, including Branson, two pilots, and three mission specialists. Unity will be launched from a Virgin Galactic carrier plane at a height of roughly 50,000 feet, then soar to the edge of space on its own rocket power, where the crew will experience about 4 minutes of weightlessness before beginning a descent back to Earth.
The expedition is not without the risks that come with space travel. During a test flight over California’s Mojave Desert in 2014, a previous prototype of the rocket plane crashed, killing one pilot and critically wounding the other. When asked how his family reacted to the news that he would be joining Sunday’s crew last week, Branson said his children, who are adventurous like him, were ecstatic, but that his wife, Joan, was more cautious. “On a Virgin Atlantic jet, my wife is the type of person who would be horrified,” he remarked. “She is the very last person who would want to do such a thing. But she’s known me since I tried to fly across the Atlantic, Pacific, or globe in a balloon, and she still loves us.” “If you’re crazy enough to do these beautiful things, you can do them,” his wife said, laughing. “But I won’t be going to your funeral.”
Branson has positioned himself to beat rival entrepreneur Jeff Bezos into orbit by nine days by joining the voyage on July 11.
On July 20, Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc, will travel aboard his own private rocket business, Blue Origin, for a suborbital flight of the New Shepard spacecraft.
In the developing space tourism market, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, as well as Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are battling head-to-head.
However, Branson denied that he and Bezos were competing to see who would go up first.
“I simply wish him and those accompanying him the best of luck. When he returns, I’m looking forward to hearing about his ride “Bezos, Branson remarked. “We both wished each other well when I spoke with him two or three weeks ago.” Both enterprises’ success is seen as critical to the development of a nascent business that wants to make space travel commonplace, at least for high-paying clients. Virgin has announced that two more test flights of the vehicle would be conducted before the business begins commercial service in 2022, and Branson has stated that paid trips will be offered on a “regular basis” next year. He also expressed confidence that his enterprise and Bezos’ company would be able to compete in the market. Branson stated, “Neither of us will be able to build enough spacecraft to meet the demand.” (Arlene Eiras in Washington and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles contributed reporting; Eric M. Johnson in Seattle contributed additional reporting; Sonya Hepinstall edited the piece.)/n
