Billions of space races: Bransonek Bezos | Space News aims to travel ahead of

Branson’s July 11 mission will be VSS Unity’s 22nd flight test, and the company’s fourth manned space flight.

Entrepreneurial billionaire Richard Branson will travel to the edge of space on a test flight at Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. on July 11, Branson’s space tourism company said Thursday that he overtook billionaire and aspiring astronaut pair Jeff Bezos.

Branson’s successful flight on Virgin’s VSS Unity spacecraft would mark a key milestone in the race to usher in a new era of private commercial space travel.

It would mean that Branson will travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere before Bezos, the creator of the Blue Origin space opponent’s tourism.

Bezos, who created the retail giant Amazon.com, plans to go into space on July 20 with her brother Mark, a female pilot Wally Funk and a hitherto unidentified person, who dropped $ 28 million to enter the suborbital joybride.

Reuters reported last month that Branson was investigating a show-stealing mission a few days before Bezos ’planned trip.

Elon Musk, also CEO of SpaceX, is also focused on optimism in the race, as space travel will become dominant as new technology is proven and costs fall, according to UBS estimates, it could be a $ 3030 million annual tourism market by 2030. a date for his space flight.

“Virgin Galactic is at the forefront of a new commercial space industry that is ready to open up space to humanity and change the world once and for all,” Branson said in a statement alongside Virgin’s announcement.

Branson’s July 11 mission will be the test of VSS Unity’s 22nd flight, and the company’s fourth manned space flight, Virginia said.

But the first will be a crew of two pilots and four “mission specialists,” including Branson.

There are two additional test flights ahead of what Virginia expects to begin commercial service in 2022, Virginia said.