Billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holding Inc is all set to send its passenger rocket – the VSS Unity – on its first crewed test flight to the edge of space today. Ahead of Branson’s maiden spaceflight, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos wished the billionaire a “successful and safe flight”
The founder of the Virgin Group will fly to space today aboard the VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo rocket plane. The spaceship will fly to an altitude of 55 miles (approximately 88.51 kms), after which the pilots will cut the engines, allowing it to drift for 5 minutes. In those few minutes, the crew members will feel weightless. Through the windows of the spaceship, the passengers can see the Earth’s curvature.
Note that Branson’s space trip comes just nine days before Bezos’ own flight to space with his brother. In an Instagram post on Sunday, Bezos wished Branson and “the whole team a successful and safe flight”
VSS Unity Spaceflight:
The Virgin Galactic website features a timer set to mark the “launch of a new space age”. It quotes Branson as saying, “We are at the vanguard of a new industry determined to pioneer twenty-first century spacecraft, which will open space to everybody — and change the world for good.”
About the experience, the website states, “spaceship and mothership” will “climb together to just below 50,000 feet” following which the pilot will release the spaceship from the mothership. “The spaceship’s rocket ignites, sending the craft up to space a little over Mach 3. The colours outside the window change from blue to indigo to midnight black as you reach space and the rocket motor switches off,” the description on the website further stated.
Through the spaceship’s 17 windows, passengers can “see home (Earth) for the first time”. Inside the cabin, 16 cameras will record “every moment of the experience in HD”. On today’s space flight, Branson’s fellow passengers will include Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, Virgin Galactic lead operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, the vice president of government affairs and research operations at the company. VSS Unity will be piloted by Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, with C.J. Sturckow and Kelly Latimer piloting VMS Eve.
Musk implies he’ll watch Richard Branson’s planned space flight
It is worth adding that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also wished Branson ahead of the trip, and said, “Will see you there”, implying that he could be present at the launch. Note that Musk and Branson are good friends. Musk has bought a ticket to watch Branson’s spaceship flights, according to a newspaper report.
As Branson prepares to fly on Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed flight to the edge of space from New Mexico, The Sunday Times reported that Musk – who owns rival exploration company SpaceX – has paid for a seat on a future Virgin voyage. Musk paid a 10,000-dollar (£7,000) deposit to reserve a seat. No date for his flight has been specified, the report stated.
Where and how to watch LIVE streaming of Branson’s spaceflight?
For the first time, Virgin Galactic will share a global live stream of spaceflight. The live stream will be available to watch on Virgin Galactic.com and will be simulcast on Virgin Galactic’s Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook channels. As per Virgin Galactic’s Twitter, the launch will be broadcasted live from 9 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) i.e. 6.30 pm Indian Standard Time (IST) on Sunday.
