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Virgin Galactic to launch space plane with Richard Branson on board
The billionaire, along with two pilots and three other passengers, will reach 55 miles above Earth for about an hour
July is a frantic month for the two billionaires racing to kick off space tourism, with Richard Branson’s SpaceShipTwo set to launch on Sunday with the British entrepreneur on board just days ahead of rival and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in his rocket. #Unity22
Branson’s extraterrestrial venture, Virgin Galactic, will send its space plane into sub-orbital flight on Sunday morning, aimed at reaching 55 miles above Earth at its peak altitude.
The high-profile take-off of spaceflight Virgin Galactic Unity 22 will begin from Virgin Galactic’s operational base at Spaceport America in the New Mexico desert will be livestreamed, with Branson accompanying two pilots and three other passengers, and the live broadcast hosted from terra firma by comedian Stephen Colbert.
The jaunt from launch to landing will last about an hour, according to the company and those on board will experience several minutes of weightlessness.
The flight of Virgin Galactic is due to occur just nine days before Bezos makes his long-awaited debut launch into space on his rocket, New Shepard – named for Alan Shepard, the first American astronaut in space – manufactured by Bezos’s company Blue Origin.
New Shepard will take Bezos and five others, including his brother, Mark, and pilot Wally Funk, who was denied the job of astronaut in the 1960s because she was a woman, roughly 62 miles above the Earth’s surface.
The flight will also include a yet-to-be-named passenger who paid $28m for their trip in an auction last month.
Aeronatics standard setter Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, the Switzerland-based world body, defines the Kármán line as the altitude of 100 kilometres (62 miles; 330,000 feet) above Earth’s mean sea level, as do several other organizations.
However, US space agency Nasa says the boundary is 50 miles, or 80 kilometers, above sea level, with pilots, mission specialists and civilians who cross this boundary officially deemed astronauts.
Seemingly stung that its prized “first Virgin Galactic” moment for space travel for the general public is being seized by Branson, Bezos’s Blue Origin took to Twitter to make digs alluding to whether Unity 22 is really going into space, instead of just to the edge of space.
“From the beginning, New Shepard was designed to fly above the Kármán line so none of our astronauts have an asterisk next to their name,” the company tweeted Friday.
“For 96% of the world’s population, space begins 100km up at the internationally recognized Kármán line.”
Virgin Galactic hasn’t engaged in the social media banter, instead promoting the launch, and hosting a question and answer thread with Unity 22 Virgin Galactic crew members, with the flight label recognizing that this will be the 22nd flight of the company’s VSS Unity rocket plane, although the first to carry space travel passengers Unity 22 as opposed to crew. virgin galactic,virgin galactic live,richard branson,virgin galactic launch,virgin galactic flight,virgin galactic space flight,space flight richard branson,virgin galactic livestream,virgin galactic video,virgin galactic july 11th,jeff bezos,virgin galactic 2021,livestream,virgin galactic test flight,virgin galactic stream,virgin galactic youtube,virgin galactic vs blue origin,virgin galactic flight live,virgin galactic channel virgin galactic,virgin galactic live,richard branson,virgin galactic launch,virgin galactic flight,virgin galactic space flight,space flight richard branson,virgin galactic livestream,virgin galactic video,virgin galactic july 11th,jeff bezos,virgin galactic 2021,livestream,virgin galactic test flight,virgin galactic stream,virgin galactic youtube,virgin galactic vs blue origin,virgin galactic flight live,virgin galactic channel Branson’s spaceplane will be borne aloft by a twin-fuselage carrier jet to an altitude of 50,000 feet, where the Unity craft riding upon it will then be released and soar by rocket Virgin Galactic power in an almost vertical climb through the outer fringe of Earth’s atmosphere.
By contrast, Blue Origin’s passenger capsule lifts off vertically atop a reusable rocket from a launchpad in west Texas, with Bezos’s flight on 20 July scheduled for the 52nd anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.
On 2 July, Branson had told CNN Business, “I don’t know for sure exactly when Jeff Bezos is going, he may decide to go before us, but I honestly don’t see this as a space race.”
“I would love for Jeff to come and see our flight off … I would love to go and watch him go in his flight, and I think both of us will wish each other well,” he continued.
Branson has sought to send a rocket into space since he founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 and aspires to create an “orbital hotel”.
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