{"id":17526,"date":"2021-07-11T23:22:50","date_gmt":"2021-07-11T15:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-galactics-richard-branson-takes-suborbital-space-trip-stealing-the-spotlight-from-jeff-bezos\/"},"modified":"2021-07-11T23:22:50","modified_gmt":"2021-07-11T15:22:50","slug":"virgin-galactics-richard-branson-takes-suborbital-space-trip-stealing-the-spotlight-from-jeff-bezos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-galactics-richard-branson-takes-suborbital-space-trip-stealing-the-spotlight-from-jeff-bezos\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic\u2019s Richard Branson takes suborbital space trip, stealing the spotlight from Jeff Bezos"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_630104\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-630104\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-630104\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/200711-virgin2-630x337.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceShipTwo launch\" width=\"630\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/200711-virgin2-630x337.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/200711-virgin2-768x410.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/200711-virgin2.jpg 1220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-630104\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, VSS Unity, fires up its hybrid rocket motor to head spaceward. (Virgin Galactic via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson rode his company\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane into the skies over New Mexico today and did something that no billionaire has done before.<\/p>\n<p>In the company of five crewmates, Branson became the first billionaire to take a rocket-powered ride on his own company\u2019s spaceship, rising above the 50-mile mark that the Federal Aviation Administration considers the boundary of outer space.<\/p>\n<p>Only two other billionaires are in the same class: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who flew to New Mexico to see Branson off and has reportedly reserved a ticket for a Virgin Galactic flight; and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who\u2019s getting ready for a suborbital space ride&nbsp;on the rocket ship built by his Blue Origin space venture.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 704px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=b0yle&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=eyJ0ZndfdGltZWxpbmVfbGlzdCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOltdLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2ZvbGxvd2VyX2NvdW50X3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9iYWNrZW5kIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19yZWZzcmNfc2Vzc2lvbiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZm9zbnJfc29mdF9pbnRlcnZlbnRpb25zX2VuYWJsZWQiOnsiYnVja2V0Ijoib24iLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X21peGVkX21lZGlhXzE1ODk3Ijp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRyZWF0bWVudCIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3Nob3dfYmlyZHdhdGNoX3Bpdm90c19lbmFibGVkIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6Im9uIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH0sInRmd19kdXBsaWNhdGVfc2NyaWJlc190b19zZXR0aW5ncyI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdXNlX3Byb2ZpbGVfaW1hZ2Vfc2hhcGVfZW5hYmxlZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdmlkZW9faGxzX2R5bmFtaWNfbWFuaWZlc3RzXzE1MDgyIjp7ImJ1Y2tldCI6InRydWVfYml0cmF0ZSIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfbGVnYWN5X3RpbWVsaW5lX3N1bnNldCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOnRydWUsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9LCJ0ZndfdHdlZXRfZWRpdF9mcm9udGVuZCI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJvbiIsInZlcnNpb24iOm51bGx9fQ%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1414199651037716485&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com%2F2021%2Fvirgin-galactics-richard-branson-begins-suborbital-space-trip-taking-spotlight-jeff-bezos%2F&amp;sessionId=680f7e8f5a38808e9e003e1f03347e23bd956b89&amp;siteScreenName=geekwire&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"1414199651037716485\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>At its peak, the VSS Unity plane rose to an altitude of 53.5 miles (86.2 kilometers). On the way down, Branson said it was the \u201cexperience of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have dreamt of this moment since I was a kid,\u201d he told the crowd at New Mexico\u2019s Spaceport America during a post-landing ceremony. \u201cHonestly, nothing could prepare you for the view from space. The whole thing was just magical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Branson is not the first billionaire to reach outer space: Veteran Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi did that twice during trips to the International Space Station in 2007 and 2009. And for what it\u2019s worth, two additional&nbsp;space station visitors became billionaires after they flew on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>But the fact that the British-born Branson is essentially \u201ceating his own dog food,\u201d to use a tech term, serves as a milestone for the commercial spaceflight industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter many decades of effort to get space tourism off the ground, we have not one, but two companies carrying their founders and our bad-ass friends to space!\u201d former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver tweeted in advance of today\u2019s takeoff. \u201cI\u2019m beyond thrilled for all!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A month ago, it looked as if Bezos might beat Branson to the punch; however, Branson drew extra encouragement from the success of the VSS Unity rocket plane\u2019s latest test flight, and from the FAA\u2019s thumbs-up for commercial operations. As a result, he moved up the date of his long-planned flight to space.<\/p>\n<p>Branson insists he\u2019s not in a space race with Bezos, but it\u2019s hard to believe the self-styled rebel billionaire didn\u2019t think about the extra attention he\u2019d get for breaking the space barrier in advance of Bezos\u2019 flight on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.<\/p>\n<p>In keeping with Branson\u2019s image, Virgin Galactic brought out the glitz for today\u2019s proceedings at Spaceport America. The company arranged for live coverage of a test flight for the first time, with talk-show host Stephen Colbert signed up as the emcee. Hundreds of thousands of viewers were watching YouTube when the highly produced webcast began, several minutes after takeoff.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"See Virgin Galactic Unity 22 with Richard Branson soar to space and back!\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BQs2AjIEXeQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Showbiz celebrities like Kate Winslet contributed to a good-luck video released on the eve of the launch, space celebrities like Musk and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield were on hand for the takeoff, and the singer-songwriter Khalid unveiled a new tune titled \u201cNew Normal\u201d after the landing.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo is modeled after the SpaceShipOne rocket plane that won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for privately funded spaceflight in 2004, under the guidance of aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan with financial backing from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis effort was \u2018classic Paul\u2019 \u2014 have a vision, find the right person to execute that vision, fund the project, and exit, having left the world in an entirely different state than previously \u2014 in this case, demonstrating the feasibility of private spaceflight by actually doing it,\u201d University of Washington computer scientist Ed Lazowska told GeekWire in an email.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s trip followed the trajectory traced during VSS Unity\u2019s three previous journeys above the 50-mile mark. Two of those flights were conducted from California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port, in late 2018 and early 2019. The third took place in May from Spaceport America, the venue for today\u2019s test.<\/p>\n<p>Unity was slung beneath its VMS Eve mothership for takeoff at about 7:40 a.m. PT. It took about 45 minutes for Eve and Unity to reach the drop zone at 46,000 feet in altitude.&nbsp; After doing their final checks, Eve\u2019s pilots released Unity from that height, and Unity\u2019s pilots lit up the plane\u2019s hybrid rocket motor for the required 60-second burn.<\/p>\n<p>At the top of the ride, the travelers gazed out at the curving Earth beneath the black sky of space and experienced a few minutes of weightlessness at the top of the ride. On the choppy webcast, Branson could be seen floating in the cabin with his feet sticking up in the air.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_630109\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-630109\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-630109\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-630x348.png\" alt=\"Richard Branson in VSS Unity\" width=\"630\" height=\"348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-630x348.png 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-1260x697.png 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-768x425.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-1536x849.png 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/branson-2048x1132.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-630109\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Branson flashes a smile while sitting in his seat in VSS Unity. (Virgin Galactic via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For the descent, Unity\u2019s pilots put the plane\u2019s wings in an angled position to increase drag and reduce velocity from supersonic levels, and then repositioned them for the glide back to an airplane-like landing at Spaceport America.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci were at Unity\u2019s controls. Branson\u2019s fellow mission specialists were Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor, who took a trip to space in 2019; lead operations engineer Colin Bennett; and Sirisha Bandia, vice president of government affairs and research operations.<\/p>\n<p>Bandia was in charge of a plant growth experiment from the University of Florida that required several handheld fixation tubes to be activated at various points during the flight.<\/p>\n<p>Rounding out the flight team were CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer, who piloted the VMS Eve mothership.<\/p>\n<p>After the flight, some observers took note of a wrinkled area on the skin of Unity\u2019s fuselage, but that turned out to be nothing abnormal. \u201cThe ship looks pristine,\u201d Virgin Galactic President Mike Moses said at a news conference. The one issue Moses mentioned had to do with potential antenna blockage that caused dropouts in the in-flight video transmission.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic said the primary purpose of today\u2019s test flight was to assess the company\u2019s on-the-ground training program, the onboard customer experience and the procedures that researchers will employ when they accompany their scientific payloads.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInitially I thought testing the customer experience was a little bit of an excuse to get me on,\u201d Branson said afterward. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t. It\u2019s so great to just get out there, test the customer experience. You get lists and lists of little things, and it\u2019s the little details that matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two more test flights are scheduled, with commercial operations due to begin next year. About 600 customers have already paid as much as $250,000 each for reservations on those future flights, and the price is certain to rise for future reservations. (Musk reportedly paid a $10,000 deposit.)<\/p>\n<p>Branson announced that Virgin Galactic is partnering with Omaze to sponsor a sweepstakes aimed at awarding two tickets on a future SpaceShipTwo flight. Proceeds will go toward Space for Humanity, a charitable organization that focuses on widening access to space.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_630111\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-630111\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-630111\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/20711-branson-630x412.jpg\" alt=\"Richard Branson after flight\" width=\"630\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/20711-branson-630x412.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/20711-branson-1260x824.jpg 1260w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/20711-branson-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/20711-branson-1536x1004.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/20711-branson.jpg 1652w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-630111\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Branson exults after his trip on the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane. (Virgin Galactic via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Branson\u2019s flight and Bezos\u2019 upcoming flight may well mark the start of a scramble for suborbital spaceflight customers: Last month, a yet-to-be-identified auction bidder paid $28 million plus a buyer\u2019s premium to sit alongside Bezos on Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard spacecraft. That\u2019s an indicator of the market interest in suborbital space trips (or at least the interest in being part of a newsworthy spaceflight).<\/p>\n<p>The competition for customers helps explain why Branson decided to upstage Bezos, and why Blue Origin is trying so mightily to play up what it sees as its advantages in the race for space customers.<\/p>\n<p>Just a couple of days ago, Blue Origin noted in a spicy tweet that New Shepard is designed to soar beyond the 100-kilometer (62-mile) mark that currently serves as the internationally accepted boundary of space, while Virgin Galactic is targeting the FAA\u2019s 50-mile boundary instead. Blue Origin said none of its customers will \u201chave an asterisk next to their name\u201d in the list of suborbital spacefliers.<\/p>\n<p>That sort of sniping sparked a backlash, but Bezos lowered the temperature in a follow-up Instagram post that wished Branson and his team \u201cbest of luck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic created specially designed astronaut wings, shaped like sycamore seeds, to award to today\u2019s fliers \u2014 and presumably to future fliers as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a ridiculous honor for me, sir, to be able to give you something that you have earned so handily,\u201d Hadfield said today as he attached the sycamore pin to Branson\u2019s flight suit. \u201cLadies and gentlemen, this here is Sir Richard Branson, astronaut!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Asterisk or not, Branson\u2019s trip on a rocket ship has stolen the spotlight, at least for now. But there\u2019ll still be plenty of drama surrounding Bezos\u2019 upcoming flight. While Virgin Galactic\u2019s VSS Unity has carried people beyond 50 miles in altitude three times before, New Shepard\u2019s previous 15 test flights have all been uncrewed.<\/p>\n<p>That means Bezos and his three crewmates \u2014 including his brother Mark, female aviation pioneer Wally Funk and the mystery auction winner \u2014 will be the first people to ride on New Shepard. Bezos could argue that he and the others are going on a particular type of space trip that no man or woman has gone on before, with all the risks that accompany a first crewed flight.<\/p>\n<p>Bezos was gracious to Branson today in a post-flight Instagram update.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCongratulations on the flight,\u201d he wrote. \u201cCan\u2019t wait to join the club!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"instagram-media instagram-media-rendered\" id=\"instagram-embed-0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CRMbI07HmxB\/embed\/captioned\/?cr=1&amp;v=14&amp;wp=987&amp;rd=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.geekwire.com&amp;rp=%2F2021%2Fvirgin-galactics-richard-branson-begins-suborbital-space-trip-taking-spotlight-jeff-bezos%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A1694.6250000037253%7D\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"952\" data-instgrm-payload-id=\"instagram-media-payload-0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"background: white; max-width: 658px; width: calc(100% - 2px); border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(219, 219, 219); box-shadow: none; display: block; margin: 0px 0px 12px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>This report was first published at 8 a.m. PT July 11 and has been updated numerous times during and after the flight.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane, VSS Unity, fires up its hybrid rocket motor to head spaceward. (Virgin Galactic via YouTube) Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson rode his company\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane into the skies over New Mexico today and did something that no billionaire has done before. In the company of five crewmates, Branson became [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1693,493,1598,1973,4402,492,1600],"class_list":["post-17526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-richard-branson","tag-space-tourism","tag-spaceport-america","tag-spaceshiptwo","tag-suborbital-spaceflight","tag-virgin-galactic","tag-vss-unity"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17526"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}