“It’s a great day to go into space,” tweeted 70-year-old Richard Branson, who has lived his wildest adventure in the face of his long-standing desire to fly into space, and posted a photo with fellow billionaire and rival Elon. Musk space tourism.
After an hour and a half delay due to weather conditions, the Virgin spaceplane took off at about 8:40 am (3:40 pm Lisbon) with five airline employees and its founder, British businessman and philanthropist Richard Branson.
VSS Unity is installed in a two-body aircraft, and it lifted off the base ship at an altitude of eight miles (13 kilometers), fired its rocket engine and pierced the boundary between the atmosphere and space at an altitude of 55 miles (88 kilometers) to ensure a microgravity experience and a privileged view of planet.
After about four minutes above the Earth’s surface, where the crew reached zero gravity, the space plane began its return journey and ended with a historic voyage at SpacePort America at about 9:40 am (4:40 pm in Lisbon).
The Virgin founder was supposed to make that flight only in late summer, but changed his mind when billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of tech giant Amazon, was supposed to embark on Blue Origin’s first space journey on July 20, coinciding with the 52nd anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz. Arrival of Aldrin to the Moon.
The VSS Unity rocket launch marks the company’s fourth manned mission outside Earth’s atmosphere, but the first with passengers, designed to build confidence in Virgin’s space tourism business, which has decided to launch commercial flights in 2022.
The US flight safety regulator has authorized the company to take people into space on short up and down flights instead of traditional flights in which astronauts circle the Earth and float in space for several days.
