- Title: WRAP: Virgin Galactic's Branson soars to space aboard rocket plane
- Date: 11th July 2021
- Summary: TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (JULY 11, 2021) (REUTERS) (MUTE) TIMELAPSE SHOWING SUNRISE OVER MOUNTAINS AT SPACEPORT AMERICA
- Embargoed: 25th July 2021 17:45
- Keywords: Richard Branson Virgin Galactic landing space tourism test flight
- Location: TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES AND IN FLIGHT
- City: TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES AND IN FLIGHT
- Country: USA
- Topics: Science,Space Exploration,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001ELECLZB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A WRAP OF HIGHLIGHTS OF EDITS THAT HAVE ALREADY MOVED
British billionaire Richard Branson on Sunday (July 11) soared more than 50 miles above the New Mexico desert aboard his Virgin Galactic rocket plane and safely returned in the vehicle's first fully crewed test flight to space, a symbolic milestone for a venture he started 17 years ago.
Branson, one of six Virgin Galactic Holding Inc. employees strapped in for the ride, has touted the mission as a precursor to a new era of space tourism, with the company he founded in 2004 poised to begin commercial operations next year.
The success of the flight also gave the flamboyant entrepreneur bragging rights in a highly publicized rivalry with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos, the Amazon online retail mogul who had hoped to fly into space first aboard his own space company's rocket.
Sunday's launch of the VSS Unity passenger rocket plane marked the company's 22nd test flight of its SpaceShipTwo system, and its fourth crewed mission beyond Earth's atmosphere. It was also the first to carry a full complement of space travellers - two pilots and four "mission specialists," Branson among them.
A week away from his 71st birthday, Branson and his crewmates walked onto the tarmac waving to a throng of onlookers before boarding the Unity rocket plane parked at the end of a taxiway.
The gleaming white spaceplane was carried aloft on Sunday attached to the underside of the dual-fuselage jet VMS Eve (named for Branson's late mother) in a takeoff from Spaceport America, a state-owned facility near the aptly named town of Truth or Consequences. Virgin Galactic leases a large section of the 18,000-acre site.
Reaching its high-altitude launch point at about 46,000 feet, Unity was released from the mothership and fell away as its crew ignited the vehicle's rocket, sending it streaking straight upward at supersonic speed to the blackness of space some 53 miles (85.9 km) high.
The spaceplane's contrail was clearly visible from the ground as it soared through the upper atmosphere, to the cheers of the crowd below.
At the apex of the climb with the rocket shut down, the crew then experienced a few minutes of microgravity, before the spaceplane shifted into re-entry mode, and began a gliding descent to a runway back at the spaceport. The entire flight, from takeoff to landing, lasted about an hour.
Virgin has said it plans at least two further test flights of the spaceplane in the months ahead before beginning regular commercial operation in 2022.
This is no discount travel service. But demand is apparently strong, with several hundred wealthy would-be citizen astronauts already having booked reservations, priced at around $250,000 per ticket.
An earlier prototype of the Virgin Galactic rocket plane crashed during a test flight over California's Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.
(Production: Michael Fiorentino, Lisa Giles-Keddie) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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