The British-American spaceflight company - Virgin Galactic is on the move again after the space tourism venture announced its next spaceflight test and carry founder, Sir Richard Branson into space.
The mission – with 2 pilots is slated to leave as soon as July 11, guiding spacecraft VSS Unity carrying Branson alongside three Virgin Galactic employees from the company’s operations hub at Spacecraft America in New Mexico.
This is an open battle between billionaires, and it represents Branson’s long-awaited trip to space to beat the fellow billionaire, Jeff Bezos. That’s significant because Jeff Bezos announced last month that he plans to leave the earth along with his brother and the winning bidder of the auction into the Blue Origin’s first passenger spaceflight on July 20.
Virgin Galactic shares are soaring high as much as 30% shortly from its previous close of $43.19 a share. The company’s investors have already seen wild swings – climbing above $60 a share in February to below $15 in early May after the company ran into flight-testing delays.
This will be Virgin Galactic’s 4th developmental spaceflight to date, as the passengers are testing the cabin of VSS Unity and planning to begin flying tourists and researchers in early 2022. The company said it will live stream the space flight and is expected to begin at 9 a.m.
Virgin Galactic has about 600 reservations for tickets on future flights, sold at prices between $200,000 and $250,000 each. Branson announced in a video on Thursday that “When we return from space, I will announce something very exciting to give more people the chance to become an astronaut.”
