Virgin Galactic will launch Richard Branson and three firm workers to the sting of house on the morning of Sunday, July eleventh. The corporate is promising fairly a present for the mission: Stephen Colbert will host the mission’s livestream, singer-songwriter Khalid will reportedly carry out a brand new single dwell onstage following the spaceplane’s touchdown, and Branson has stated he’ll “announce one thing very thrilling” after his spaceflight.
The flight marks one of many firm’s last take a look at missions earlier than it goals to kick off industrial house tourism enterprise subsequent yr. The mission, dubbed Unity 22, will mark Virgin Galactic’s fourth flight to house carrying people, with its largest crew but. 4 folks, together with Branson, will take a look at the astronaut cabin expertise, and two pilots shall be within the cockpit.
The motion will begin when Virgin Galactic’s twin-fuselage WhiteKnight provider plane takes off from Spaceport America, the corporate’s spaceport in New Mexico on Sunday morning. The WhiteKnight plane, VMS Eve, will carry a rocket-powered spaceship referred to as VSS Unity, with Branson and others on board. About 40 minutes after takeoff, Unity will drop from the center of the mothership and ignite its rocket engine moments later to ship Branson and the crew to the sting of house, about 55 miles excessive, for a couple of minutes of weightlessness. Unity will return to a touchdown strip at Spaceport America, very similar to any regular industrial airplane.
Unity 22 is a major step ahead for Virgin Galactic’s ambitions for house tourism, a burgeoning market catered to rich adventure-seekers. The corporate, began in 2004, has already bought roughly 600 tickets, with every ticket going for round $250,000. Branson is only one participant within the billionaire-led race to court docket house vacationers. He’s vying with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which goals to launch passengers on its suborbital New Shepard rocket, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which plans to place vacationers in its orbital Crew Dragon capsule for an extended and costlier expertise in house.
Sunday’s mission has additionally been surrounded by an more and more spicy air of competitors with Bezos. Virgin Galactic introduced Branson’s spaceflight a number of weeks after Blue Origin introduced it will ship Bezos to house on July twentieth. Then, Blue Origin introduced it’d additionally fly Wally Funk on its July twentieth mission, an aviator who initially deliberate to fly on Virgin Galactic’s spaceship first. Branson denies his new flight date was meant to beat Bezos to house; he instructed The Washington Put up final week it was only a “fantastic coincidence that we’re going up in the identical month.”
Watch Virgin Galactic’s livestream beginning at 9AM ET on Sunday on its Twitter, Fb, and YouTube.
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