Looks like you can’t escape the planet of millionaires these days and its worrying labor laws. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and one of the world’s richest men, finally fulfilled his childhood dream of going into space and was ready to go into space on July 20 this year. The 10-minute flight will propel Bezos, his brother Mark, and the legendary Aviatrix Wally Fun over 3G, feels weightless in space, and eventually return to Earth (disappointing for some).
But as soon as Bezos announced his travel plans, rumors began to circulate that rival billionaire Richard Branson, who at one point would be the first to get there due to the company’s rocket being off-the-world. And the rumors are true: In a statement released July 1, Branson confirmed that he will be a passenger on Virgin Galactic’s upcoming “Unity 22” mission, which is set to launch on July 11. “Dreaming of making the place more accessible to everyone is one thing; It is another thing for an incredible team to collectively make that dream a reality, ”Branson said. “As part of a significant crew of mission experts, I am honored to validate the voyage that our future astronauts will undertake and to ensure the unique customer experience we have come to expect from Virgin.”
The “Unity 22” mission has been so dubbed because it is the 22nd flight test of the Virgin Galactic Space Plane VSS Unity. This will be the fourth crew spaceflight out of these 22. The original plan for Unity 22 was to put Virgin Galactic on a four-passenger board that could report on tourist experiences – whether the seats were comfortable enough, how many aliens they had to fight, and so on.But in a move that is considered by some to be less than cryptic, Branson announced that he would now take the place of one of these testers by placing himself in space nine days before Bezos. Branson will be joined at the VSS Unity by Virgin Galactic Beth Musa, Lead Operations Engineer Colin Bennett, and Sarisha Bandla, Vice President of Public Affairs and Research Operations. Those who want to see the life experience of the off-earth floating magnet will be able to watch a live stream of the flight on the company’s website or on social media from 9am on July 11th.
