[ad_1]
Above the sky The American Spaceport in Las Cruces (New Mexico) was on fire with lightning last night. The storm was quite severe to delay the planned departure of Virgin Galactic from its twin aircraft (mother ship) Eve and a spacecraft called VSS unity, from their hangar. The delay led to an increase in today’s scheduled flight, which would send the crew unity 50 miles from Earth, they would be thrown back 90 minutes.
But it doesn’t matter – Richard Branson had plenty of time to beat Jeff Bezos into outer space.
And he did. At 9:25 a.m., MT, taking off from the spaceport and delayed by about 45 minutes, the component of the pair’s spacecraft, unity, was ready to be released Eve. Branson and his five colleagues — two pilots, three other mission specialists — were on board. Branson was waiting to start the rocket’s engine with a frozen smile on his face. Then the fire fell from the vehicle and within two minutes, it reached the height. Branson was on the edge of space, about 80 miles up. Fifteen minutes later, Branson and his crew returned to Earth, ready to talk to Virgin Galactic about offering the same experience to anyone willing to pay $ 250,000 or so. Hundreds are already on the waiting list.
Branson is the king of the show, so it’s no surprise that the commercials have had a festival feel. In the hours leading up to the launch, Branson’s Twitter feed, along with his colleagues, was packed with sharp videos designed to depict the hero’s journey. We saw him arrive at the space port by bicycle — pedaling across the Atlantic — greeting his crew members as they were tailor-made for each other. Under Armor suits. “You’re late!” they told him. “Get dressed!”
A longer version of the video showed him signing a diary, with Branson identifying himself as an astronaut 001. Virgin Galactic CEO Elon Musk posted a photo of a welcome observer. As Branson made his way to the starting point, he was surrounded by animated spectators; he paused his fist to sign some souvenirs offered by the little children. The same live feed was taken along by Stephen Colbert. Waiting for the wings was Khalid, who wrote the song “New Normal,” to premiere at the end of the tour.
The only disappointment was that the King of Media in the capsule missed live feeds within two minutes of the actual space trip. The audience was denied the chance to see Branson and his crew members spinning in weightless happiness. (We were closest to the branches that were pixelated for about three seconds.) We had no news of the British activist at the time he was freed from gravity. “We’re sure we’ll catch his magic words and share them with the world when they’re available,” Virgin said in one of the comments live.
Riding behind today’s Virgin Galactic flight is a not-so-hot and blurry competition between billionaires. After a successful crew flight in May, Virgin Galactic’s plan was to make three more flights this year with Branson in the second. But then Bezos announced As Blue Origin’s first crew flight would be among the passengers, Branson hurriedly changed Virgin’s schedule. unity he would return to the plane on July 11, with the fastest change the company has taken out. And Branson would be on board, along with a cabin of his staff. In addition to the personal risk, there was a financial one: Virgin Galactic became a public company in late 2019, merging with a listed company, and an unsuccessful flight would screw up the pony in terms of share price.
[ad_2]
Source link
