British billionaire Richard Branson reached the space frontier on Sunday before landing successfully in New Mexico, in the western United States, after a spectacular flight aimed at launching a lucrative new tourism industry from the United States. ‘space.
Richard Branson and five crew members crossed the border from space aboard a test flight of the spacecraft developed by Virgin Galactic, which peaked more than 80 km above the Earth’s surface .
The VSS Unity spacecraft landed at the Spaceport America facility in New Mexico after an approximately one hour flight. It successfully separated from the VMS Eve launch aircraft, which took off after a weather delay.
On board the vessel, Richard Branson spoke of a “once in a lifetime experience”. He indeed became the first billionaire to break into space aboard a machine developed by a company he himself founded.
Another billionaire, the American Jeff Bezos, must fly him on July 20 to space as part of the first manned flight of his company Blue Origin. A seat up for auction on the flight has sold for $ 28 million to accompany the Amazon boss and his brother on the New Shepard manned flight, which will take off from Van Horn, Texas.
Watch our # Unity22 spaceflight live @virgingalactic https://t.co/J2M2u4H2hP
– Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 11, 2021
.