Tag: flighttospace

  • Billionaire Richard Branson achieves his space dream

    British Billionaire, Richard Branson, flew into space on Sunday on his Virgin Galactic rocket plane and safely returned in the vehicle’s first fully-crewed test flight to space.

    After the historic moment, he released a video of him and the crew during the flight on Twitter.

    “I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth,” said Branson.

    According to reports, the space plane took off from Spaceport America, a huge base built in the Jornada del Muerto desert. It reached a peak altitude of around 53 miles beyond the boundary of space and carried two pilots and four passengers, including Branson.

    Shortly after the flight, the 70-year-old billionaire hugged his loved ones. He added, “Welcome to the dawn of a new space age.”

    The mission’s success has made Branson the first tycoon — beating Bezos — to cross the final frontier in a ship built by his own company. However, the richest person in the world is due to fly on July 20 and he himself congratulated his friendly rival on Instagram.

    Read more – 11-minute flight: Billionaire Jeff Bezos is going to space without a pilot

    Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, but his dream almost came to an end in 2014 when an accident caused the death of a pilot, considerably delaying the program. The company has planned two further flights, and then the start of regular commercial operations from early 2022.

  • 11-minute flight: Billionaire Jeff Bezos is going to space without a pilot

    Amazon billionaire, Jeff Bezos will fly to space with his brother Mark Bezos next month, on the first human spaceflight. The spacecraft are being made by his company, Blue Origin. The automated capsules with no pilot will include six passengers, including the winner of an ongoing auction taking place for a seat. After that, the remaining seats will be up for sale.

    In an Instagram video, the world’s richest person, Bezos disclosed that ever since he was five years old, he has dreamed of traveling to space.

    If the mission is successful, Bezos will leave behind Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk. and British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who are also hoping to fly to space by the end of this year.

    As per reports, the total flight time would be 11 minutes approximately. The mission is to get ahead of the Karman line known as “an imaginary boundary” which is about 62 miles above the Earth and hundred kilometers above sea level.

    Since this is the first human spaceflight, there is no guarantee that the flight is safe for passengers. However, Blue Origin has successfully launched dozens of rockets from Guadalupe Mountains of West Texas.

    Blue Origin was founded by Bezos in 2000 with the mission of cheap traveling to space and reusable launch systems.

    The news came after the announcement made by Bezos in February that he would step down as the CEO of Amazon and would focus on his other work.