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Virgin Galactic launches a team of six, including billionaire founder Richard Branson, on voyage to the edge of space.
Billionaire Richard Branson took off from a base in New Mexico on board a Virgin Galactic vessel bound for the edge of space, a voyage he hopes will lift the nascent space tourism industry off the ground.
A huge carrier plane made a horizontal takeoff from Spaceport, New Mexico in the United States on Sunday at about 8:40am Mountain Time (14:40 GMT) and will ascend for about an hour to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15 kilometres).
The mothership will then drop a rocket-powered spaceplane called VSS Unity, which will ignite its engine and ascend at Mach 3 beyond the 50 miles (80 kilometres) carrying two pilots and four passengers, including Branson.
Once the rocket engine is cut off, passengers can unbuckle and experience a few minutes of weightlessness, while admiring the curvature of Earth from the ship’s 17 windows.
After peaking at about 55 miles of altitude, the ship will re-enter the thick part of the atmosphere and glide back to the runway.
“It’s a beautiful day to go to space,” the brash Brit wrote in a tweet earlier where he posted a video of himself biking to the base and meeting with his crewmates, all Virgin employees.
It’s a beautiful day to go to space. We’ve arrived at @Spaceport_NM. Get ready to watch LIVE at 7:30 am PT | 10:30 am ET | 3:30 pm BST https://t.co/PcvGTmA661 #Unity22 pic.twitter.com/4KjGPpjz0M
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 11, 2021
Branson is also aiming to one-up Amazon founder Jeff Bezos by winning the race to be the first tycoon to cross the final frontier in a ship built by a company he founded.
Earlier, he posted a picture of himself standing in a kitchen with SpaceX boss Elon Musk, who had come to show his support.
Al Jazeera’s Rob Reynolds reporting from New Mexico said there was a big cheer when the launch took place.
“I’m seeing a big white bird just drifting off into the bright blue sky and the bright sunlight here in New Mexico, and it’s just sort of almost gone out of sight now into some high cloud,” Reynolds said.
“When it took off there was a big cheer here, from some of the people, who pulled up by the side of the road to watch it on their own, as well as the guests in some of the tents and the big buildings here,” he added.
Several tourists journeyed to the International Space Station in the 2000s, but on Russian rockets.
Branson’s official role is to evaluate the private astronaut experience to enhance the journey for future clients.
According to Reynolds, once the spacecraft lands, Branson has also promised “a major surprise.”
“After the unity, spacecraft lands, again back on that very same runway that they took off from, then there will be a press conference in the Virgin Galactic headquarters,” Reynolds said.
“Richard Branson has promised a major surprise during that press conference, so we will have to wait and see what the showman of space now has to say to us. That will be one feature after this.”
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