Billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson hurtled into space aboard his own winged rocket ship on 10th July in his boldest adventure yet, beating out fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos by nine days.
The Swashbuckling entrepreneur and five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space tourism company reached an altitude of about 88 kilometers (53 miles) over the New Mexico desert which was enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth. The crew then safely glided home to a runway landing.
“Seventeen years of hard work to get us this far,” Branson said as he congratulated his team on the trip back aboard the sleek white space plane, named Unity. Virgin Galactic plans to start taking paying customers on joyrides next year.
Branson called it a “magical” experience. He also had a special message for children from space which shared on social media, encouraging them to never stop dreaming.
“I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do,” he captioned the clip of himself and his team floating in the ship.
Since being shared online, the clip has garnered over 1.3 million views, with many loving the message sent from space. There are many people who criticise Branson for wasting resources for a trip.
