British billionaire Richard Branson is ready to fly into space today. He will climb into his own company’s Virgin Galactic passenger rocket plane. It will be the first full crewed test flight of SpaceShipTwo aircraft, Unity 22.
In what has been termed the "billionaire space race," Branson will be one step ahead of rivals Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk with his today trip to space. Branson has hailed the journey as a forerunner to a new era of space travel, with his company set to begin commercial operations next year.
Where to watch the launch of spacecraft?
Though the take-off and landing times have yet to be announced, the live broadcast will begin at 9 a.m. EDT (6:30 p.m. IST) on Sunday, according to Virgin Galactic's Twitter account.
The live stream will be available on Virgin Galactic's website — virginatlantic.com, as well as on the company's Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook feeds.
Who will accompany Branson on his voyage to space?
Richard Branson will be accompanied by five Virgin Galactic Holding Inc employees which include three crewmates, and two pilots. People to fly into space with Branson are Beth Moses who is Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor, Colin Bennett- Virgin Galactic's lead operations engineer, and Sirisha Bandla, the Indian-origin vice president of government affairs and research operations at the company.
Pilots of VSS Unity are Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci.
Also Read: From Guntur to Space: Meet Sirisha Bandla, the second Indian-origin woman to fly into space
What is the Flight plan?
On Sunday morning, Virgin Galactic's spacecraft will launch from Spaceport America, the company's spaceport in New Mexico. The WhiteKnight aircraft, VMS Eve will carry a spaceship dubbed VSS Unity that will be carrying Branson and others.
Unity will drop from the middle of the mothership approximately 40 minutes after take-off and ignite its rocket engine moments later, sending Branson and the crew to the edge of space, roughly 55 miles above, for a few minutes of weightlessness. Then, Unity will return to a landing strip at Spaceport America.
As per reports, the entire flight will last about 90 minutes.
‘Billionaire space race’
Branson, with his today’s trip to space, will beat Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is also scheduled to fly to space on his company Blue Origin’s spacecraft on July 20. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has plans to send its all-civilian crew (without Musk) into orbit in September.
On Branson’s flight just a few days ahead of Bezos, the latter has wished the 70-year-old billionaire luck. Bezos took to Instagram and said, “@richardbranson wishing you and the whole team a successful and safe flight. Best of luck!