Richard Branson WILL beat Jeff Bezos in billionaire’s space race as Virgin Galactic announces he’ll be on July 11 flight
RICHARD Branson is planning to beat Jeff Bezos in the billionaire space race as Virgin Galactic announced he'll be on their July 11 flight.
Bezos announced earlier this month that he and his brother would be heading to space on July 20 on Blue Origin's New Shepherd spacecraft.
"After more than 16 years of research, engineering, and testing, Virgin Galactic stands at the vanguard of a new commercial space industry, which is set to open space to humankind and change the world for good,” said in a statement.
"I’m honoured to help validate the journey our future astronauts will undertake and ensure we deliver the unique customer experience people expect from Virgin."
The flight will be Virgin Galactic's fourth test spaceflight and its first mission with a crew of four on board.
Branson will be taking off with will be three Virgin Galactic mission specialists: Chief astronaut instructor Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett, and government affairs VP Sirisha Bandla.
The craft will be flown by Virgin Galactic pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci.
Branson released a promotional video promoting the flight on Thursday evening, and teased an announcement he's planning to make after the flight.
"I’ve always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars," he said in the video.
"This July, our dream will become a reality. And we're really excited to share that moment with you all.
"And when we return, I will announce something very exciting to give more people a chance to become astronauts, because space does belong to us all," he said.
Bezos auctioned off a seat in the craft, and an anonymous bidder paid a whopping $28million to join the Amazon founder and his brother for the short space mission.