The world’s richest people want to be tourists…in Space!6 min read

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After 17 years of work from a hardworking team and a lifelong dream, the billionaire Richard Branson was ejected into space. Well, on the morning of the 11th of July, he ejected himself into space. Now, he’s back and officially one of the world’s first commercial space tourists. So, did the man make history? And what’s the point of all this. Let’s find out.

Who is Richard Branson?

Before we get into the details of his trip, meet the man who planned it. Richard Branson is a successful billionaire businessman and the owner of the Virgin group of companies. These include airlines, shipping companies and now a space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, that already has over six hundred clients!

Richard Branson hasn’t always been as successful as he seemed a day ago when he became the world’s first private space tourist. Several of Branson’s companies have failed, and others have gone bankrupt.

However, Branson and his fighting spirit never seem to give up.

The trip into space

Branson went to space in his own company’s rocket. Virgin Galactic, his space travel company, launched two pilots and three Virgin employees (including Branson) into space.

Unlike the usual space capsule and rocket, Branson’s flight launched off in aircraft in the sky. The Aircraft VSS Eve carried Branson and his crew to a certain height from where the rocket VSS Unity took off. VSS unity then slowly floated back to Earth. Its mechanism was much like the shuttlecocks that you use in a game of Badminton.

Listen to Branson’s message from space below:

I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth. To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do https://t.co/Wyzj0nOBgX #Unity22 @virgingalactic pic.twitter.com/03EJmKiH8V

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 11, 2021

The entire ride lasted an hour, with the actual Space flight lasting about 15 minutes. The crew was able to be in zero-gravity for about four minutes. They could all float around and look down and marvel at planet Earth.

There was an Indian on-board! An Indian origin woman, Sirisha Bandla, became the third person with Indian roots to fly into space.

The race to space

Branson isn’t the only billionaire who is trying to conquer space. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and Elon Musk, the eccentric owner of Tesla and SpaceX, also want to take a leisurely trip into space. And what’s more, is that they all want to sell tickets too.

Elon Musk has already bought a ticket on one of Virgin Galactic’s next space flights for tourists.

Compare the three flights to find out what makes the experience that these three companies provide different from one another. Make sure you make an informed decision before you shell out your millions.

A brief comparison

The billionaire behind it: Richard Branson
Name of the Rocket: VSS Unity
Name of the Company: Virgin Galactic
The date that the first flight takes off: The 11th of July, 2021
Duration of the flight: 15 minutes
Cost of a ticket: 200,000 US dollars or about 1 and a half crore rupees!!
Height achieved: 85km above sea level (many people consider the beginning of space to be at the Karman line, which is 100km over the sea level)
Type of rocket: Airplane + Rocket

^{Even though these three men will be the first Space Tourists on privately owned spacecrafts, other millionaires and billionaires have made the trip on government vessels.}

_{Answer Key:
Kalpana Chawla
Sunita Wiliams}

With Excerpts From: The New York Times, The Print, Forbes, Forbes, Livemint, The Indian Express, The Hindu, and Scroll.