12 JULY 2021

Index


© 2022 Business Travel News Ltd.

Article from BTNews 12 JULY 2021

Branson takes off

Sir Richard Branson (71) was upstaged yesterday (by football), which does not often happen, but it was for what we thought was a good cause.  He should take solace that 11 July 2021 will be remembered for two events, his being in some ways the minor, but in time both be coupled together, date wise. No penalties involved and failure would have been more serious.

Sir Richard, two pilots and three passengers launched a spacecraft above the New Mexico desert yesterday to win the race for commercial space flight with the Virgin Galactic project.  

Jeff Bezos, of Amazon fame, plans to ride his own rocket, New Shepard, into space in nine days’ time.

This is not the first occasion that Branson has risked everything, Virgin Atlantic itself something of a gamble.  

Some Virgin business ventures have worked wonders, others failed ignominiously, or in the case of the successful Virgin West Coast rail service, destroyed by legislation.  His Virgin Atlantic Challenger capsized, the crew rescued by the RAF, but the Virgin Atlantic Flyer balloon crossed ‘The Pond’ with ease. Virgin Cruises makes its maiden fare paying voyage on 9 August.

The space vehicle called Unity was carried by a special launch aircraft, named Eve after Branson’s mother, from America’s Spaceport to an altitude of about 50,000ft where it was released.  

A rocket motor in the back of Unity then ignited and blasted the ship skyward. The motor burnt for 60sec, by which time all on board had an extraordinary view of the planet below.

The maximum height achieved by Unity was 53 miles, but towards the top of the climb all enjoyed a few minutes of weightlessness and the ability to float around the cabin and to look out of the window.

It was then a glide back to the spaceport in New Mexico.  The event was broadcast live.

Virgin Galactic is expected to complete several more test flights before beginning commercial launches.

Ultimately the company aims to be operating multiple space tourism flights a year, and already has more than 600 customers for the $250,000 trip – including Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio.

www.virgingalactic.com

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum


Paul Kay, London, UK

..."If you've flown 'Supersonic' on Concorde with all that entails to do so, Height Obviously, then you only get your 'Half Astronaut Wings' to pin on your business suit...and maybe for the $250,000 price tag I would expect to do a 'Yuri Gagarin' for that....and be down the chip shop that evening!"....


www.btnews.co.uk