Status: 07/11/2021 6:23 p.m.
It was a test flight and a successful PR coup at the same time: The British entrepreneur Branson made a short trip into space with his spaceship – just nine days before his competitor Bezos took off.
The British billionaire Richard Branson landed safely on earth after a space flight with his spaceship. According to Branson’s company Virgin Galactic, the “VSS Unity” rose to an altitude of more than 80 kilometers after taking off in the US state of New Mexico. After a few minutes, during which the astronauts experienced weightlessness, the spaceship started to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere and finally landed at the commercial spaceport Spaceport America. Branson congratulated his company on the approach and called the experience “wonderful”.
The spaceship “VSS Unity” with a mother plane taking off in New Mexico.
Image: AFP
The 70-year-old had started his journey with two astronauts and three astronauts. The spaceship was first brought under a mother plane to an altitude of about 14 kilometers and then set down. Then the engine ignited and accelerated the spacecraft during a steep ascent, according to the information to more than three times the speed of sound, which corresponds to more than 3700 kilometers per hour.
“I feel good, excited, ready”
Branson, like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla boss Elon Musk, are pursuing the goal of entering the space tourism business. Branson’s All-Trip is a successful PR coup against one of his competitors: Bezos, the richest man in the world, had already advertised his flight into space planned for July 20 at great expense – then entrepreneur Branson came and announced that he would I’ll fly nine days early.
Posing with Musk on a Twitter photo before his flight, Branson wrote, “We have a great day ahead of us. Great to start the morning with a friend. I feel good, excited, ready.”
Where does space begin?
It is controversial among experts whether Branson was actually in space: The International Aviation Association (FAI) and many other experts see the boundary to space at 100 kilometers above the earth, but there are no binding international regulations. For example, US Air Force soldiers were also given the designation astronauts, even though they had only flown to an altitude of 50 miles (80.5 kilometers). For comparison: the international space station ISS is about 400 kilometers above the earth’s surface.
Richard Branson successfully flown into space and landed safely
Arthur Landwehr, ARD Washington, July 11th, 2021 6:33 p.m.