With their successful launch, Virgin Galactic may start bringing paying customers into space from as early as next year
Over the weekend, Richard Branson finally achieved his lifelong dream of reaching space when he boarded his Virgin Galactic space plane, Unity, with five other crewmates and hurtled into space with them for a 15-minute joyride.
The Unity managed to reach an altitude of 86km over the New Mexico desert and that meant that all onboard got to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and that they also got to witness the curvature of Earth.
The trip, which was highly publicised, was a commercial plug for Virgin Galactic which is reportedly going to try taking paying customers on space trips from as early as next year.
See also: Virgin Galactic And NASA Team Up To Begin Sending Travellers To Space
Branson's groundbreaking trip to space was tracked by news outlets all over the world and watched by about 500 people in person, including Branson's family—all of whom cheered and jumped up and down as the Unity touched down safely on Earth after the quick but momentous ride.
In fact, apart from some issues with the video transmission, the flight was "perfect" and the ship was "pristine", according to Mike Moses, a top executive at Virgin Galactic.
Branson's flight into space comes as a bit of a surprise to many as it was originally scheduled to only take place later this year. However, when Jeff Bezos announced that he would be going to space in his own rocket on July 20, Branson moved his flight date up.
True enough, many billionaires have been pumping in billions of dollars to try to get themselves into space and to make space tourism a possibility.
Find out more about 4 other billionaires who are vying to get into space.