Billionaire Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Galactic space tourism company, successfully completed his maiden flight into space this Sunday, aboard his own spacecraft on his most daring adventure to date.
The launch occurred shortly after
10:30 am
(Eastern Time).
The British businessman traveled with three employees of the company, from the desert of southern New Mexico.
Branson was accompanied by three people: two women - aerospace engineer Beth Moses and Sirisha Bandla, Virgin Galactic's vice president of government affairs and research - and a man, Collin Benett, the company's chief operations engineer.
The mother aircraft -VMS Eve- that loaded the plane with which it made the space flight, is named after Branson's mother, Eve Branson, who died on January 8, 2021.
The plane - Unit 22 - broke off shortly after 11:25 a.m. (Eastern Time) and continued its flight.
A few minutes later, the live broadcast from the cockpit showed Branson and the other crews floating due to microgravity.
In total, from launch in the air until landing, Unity 22 flew about 15 minutes.
"I've dreamed of this moment since I was a child. But nothing can prepare you for the view from space," Branson told people invited to the launch shortly after landing.
English billionaire Richard Branson celebrates in front of the Spaceport America building, Vigin Galactic's headquarters in New Mexico, after returning from his space trip on July 11, 2021. Joe Skipper / Reuters
The billionaire announced that
tickets will soon be available for people who want to go into space
on Virgin Galactic's first commercial flights.
He also announced that they will raffle two seats on one of those flights among those who register on the page of Omaze, a company specialized in raising funds for charities.
"We are here to make space more accessible to all, and we want to make the next generation of dreamers the astronauts of today and tomorrow," said Branson, visibly excited after his space flight.
The London-born founder of the Virgin Group, who will turn 71 in a week, was not due to fly until the end of this summer.
But he decided to advance his flight after
Jeff Bezos
, founder of the Blue Origin company, announced his plans to take his own rocket into space from West Texas on July 20.
Although it is only a
test flight,
the expedition - Virgin Galactic's first with a full crew - could be a major boost for
the company, which aims to launch commercial flights with paying customers in 2022.
Richard Branson (front left) congratulates his crew after completing their first space flight aboard his company ship, Vorgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic / Reuters
"This is a historic moment for Virgin Galactic. We strive to open access to space for everyone," said company CEO Michael Colglazier.
Branson's trip into space surpasses that of his rival, also the founder of Amazon, who plans a similar feat aboard a rocket and capsule designed by his own space company.
The Branson flight is a
suborbital excursion
, that is, instead of reaching orbit and circling the Earth, the vehicle will fly to the edge of space, at an
altitude of more than 50 miles
(80 kilometers), where the Passengers will experience about four minutes of weightlessness before returning to land.
Unlike Blue Origin and SpaceX, both Elon Musk companies, which launch capsules on reusable booster rockets, Virgin Galactic uses a twin-body aircraft to put its rocket in the air.
The space plane detaches itself from the mothership at about 44,000 feet (13,400 meters), and then fires its rocket engine to fly straight into space.
Richard Branson joins the private space travel race with his company Virgin Galactic
July 9, 202102: 56
The rocket plane - which requires two pilots - plans a landing on the runway of its base at Spaceport America.
[Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will travel on the first flight of the rocket developed by his space company]
Virgin Galactic first reached space in 2018, repeating the adventure in 2019 and again this past May, each time with a minimal crew.
Last month it received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin launching clients.
With information from AP and NBC News.