On Sunday, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, along with five others, will embark on Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed test flight to the edge of space, launching himself into space, the final frontier. In what has been dubbed the “billionaire space race,” Branson will be one step ahead of rivals Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
Branson will travel to space aboard the VSS Unity, a passenger rocket plane built by his company Virgin Galactic. The spacecraft will be launched by the VMS Eve (named after Branson’s mother), a twin-fuselage carrier jet. Virgin Galactic shared photos on social media of the gleaming white spaceplane, which was all set to make its debut flight up to an altitude of 50,000 feet before being released for the rest of its journey through the Earth’s atmosphere.
The VSS Unity will be flown by Richard Branson and pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci. The VMS Eve will be flown by pilots CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer. Beth Moses, the chief astronaut instructor, and Colin Bennett, the lead operations engineer, are among the other members of the crew. vice president of government relations and operations research Sirisha Bandla, an Indian-origin American who will be the first Indian woman in space, is also a member of the crew.
Virgin Galactic will stream Branson’s first trip to the far reaches of space live around the world via its official social media channels. The live stream will begin at 6 a.m. PT (Pacific Time) on Sunday, just hours before the test flight takes off. This brings us to around 6:30 p.m. IST.
If all goes according to plan, Branson’s Virgin Galactic spaceflight will last about 90 minutes and end on a runway at Spaceport America near the appropriately named town of Truth or Consequences. Despite the fact that this will be the company’s 22nd test flight of the spacecraft and its fourth crewed mission beyond Earth’s atmosphere, it will be the first to carry a full complement of space travellers – two pilots and four “mission specialists,” including Branson.
