Richard Branson reached space on Virgin Galactic flight

July 13, 2021: -Sir Richard Branson, after nearly 17 years of development and over a billion dollars invested in Virgin Galactic, completed his dream and landed in space.

Branson called the spacecraft’s cabin the spaceflight the “complete experience of a lifetime.”

“I have dreamt of this time since I was a kid, and nothing could prepare you for the view of Earth from space,” Branson said after reaching space.

On Sunday, the spacecraft VSS Unity of the company launched above the skies of New Mexico, with two pilots guiding the vehicle carrying the billionaire founder and three Virgin Galactic employees.  After the release by a carrier aircraft called VMS Eve above 40,000 feet, VSS Unity fired its rocket engine and accelerated to more fast than three times the speed of sound in a climb to the edge of space.

The VSS Unity, after that, performed a slow backflip in microgravity when the Virgin Galactic crew was not having any weight and floated near the spacecraft cabin. The spacecraft got nearly to an altitude of 86.1 kilometers.

The vehicle after that came back through the atmosphere in a glide to land back at the runway of Spaceport America, from where it took off from before.

Pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci flew Unity. Alongside Branson in the cabin of spacecraft is chief astronaut trainer Beth Moses, lead operations engineer Colin Bennett, and VP of government affairs Sirisha Bandla. Mackay and Masucci both have previously flown to space and Moses and pilots C.J. Sturckow and Mark Stucky.

The U.S. considers pilots who have flown above 80 kilometers to be astronauts.

VSS Unity is designed to hold up around six passengers with the two pilots. The company has nearly 600 reservations for tickets on future flights, sold at prices amid $200,000 and $250,000 each.

“We’re here to make space more accessible to all at all,” Branson said after the flight. “The mission statement that I wrote inside my spacesuit was to turn the dream of space travel into a reality for my grandchildren … and for many people who are alive today, for everybody.”