Richard Branson: His spaceflight will take place on Sunday a few days before Jeff Bezos (videos-photos)

Sir Richard Branson will fly to the limits of space on Sunday, cutting the thread in the space battle and beating Jeff Bezos, who has scheduled his flight for July 20, leaving behind Elon Musk, who is designing space flights with Space X.

Richard Branson, along with three Virgin Galactic staff and two pilots, will travel on the Vss Unity spacecraft from Spaceport America base in New Mexico.

The company will make the live broadcast of the flight on social media.

3 days until #Unity22! Come inside the hangar for pre-flight preparations as our spaceship VSS Unity joins forces with our mothership VMS Eve. Watch the launch live this Sunday at 6 am PT | 9 am ET | 2 pm BST. https://t.co/WEBNyUYpRQ pic.twitter.com/xakebHTN5T

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) July 8, 2021

The billionaire will make the magical voyage a week before he turns 71 and after 21 test flights.

Branson even announced a big surprise. “When we return from space, I will announce something very exciting, in order to give more people the opportunity to become astronauts. Space belongs to all of us”, he said. “It’s time to make my dream come true”, said the company’s founder, noting that he has been looking forward to implementing his plan for 17 years.

The British billionaire will be a passenger on the first of three test flights with a crew of “astronauts” in the cabin, before the journeys of the 600 people holding astronaut tickets for 2022 begin.

Branson is the astronaut 001. He will be accompanied by Beth Moses (astronaut 002), Colin Bennett (astronaut 003) and Sirisha Bandla (astronaut 004).

The flight will be with VSS Unity, with pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci released from the “mothership” VMS Eve, which will be piloted by CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer.

Branson said he wants to control the customer experience from start to finish on his spaceflight and ensure that those who pay to make that flight have the best possible experience.

At the same time, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin and up close Elon Musk’s SpaceX have been thrown into the space battle. However, Branson denies that he and Jeff Bezos have a competition for who will go first in space.

“I wish him and all those who travel with him the best. I look forward to talking to him about his journey when he returns”, said the British billionaire, who revealed that they had a telephone conversation in which they exchanged wishes.

The success of both projects is considered key to the space tourism industry. Virgin will offer regular flights next year, starting with 600 future astronauts who have a ticket and have been waiting for at least a decade for the opportunity to fly in space. Branson believes there is room in the market for his company to compete with Blue Origin.

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