Page 21 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2021

Sir Richard Branson Reaches Space 21

Richard Branson Reaches

Space on Virgin Galactic’s

VSS Unity

The historic flight is only the
second time that the rocket plane

has carried people.

by Steven Levy

The sky over the Spaceport America in Las
Cruces, New Mexico, was afire with lightning
last night. The storm was sufficiently fierce to
postpone Virgin Galactic’s planned rollout of its
twin airships, mothership Eve and a space
vehicle called VSS Unity, from their hangar. The
delay meant that liftoff for today’s planned
flight, which would send a crew on Unity 50
miles above Earth, would be pushed back 90
minutes.

But no matter—Richard Branson still had plenty
of time to beat Jeff Bezos into outer space.
were denied a view of Branson and crewmates people to space. That means having the travelers
And he did it. At 9:25 am MT, about 45 minutes
spinning in weightless bliss. (The closest we got climb seven flights of steps to a capsule sitting
after taking off from the spaceport at the delayed
was about three seconds of heavily pixelated on top of a giant rocket booster and literally
time, the spaceship component of the duo,
limbs waving around.) Nor did we hear from the blasting off to the skies. Virgin Galactic uses a
Unity, was ready to be freed from Eve. Branson
British entrepreneur during his time freed from technology originally developed by a company
and five of his colleagues—two pilots, three
gravity. “We’ll be sure to capture his magical owned by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen and
other mission specialists—were on board.
words and share them with the world when built by a firm called Scaled Composites,
Branson awaited the ignition of the rocket
available,” said one of the Virgin commentators strapping a rocket-powered vehicle underneath a
engine with a smile frozen on his face. Then fire
on the live feed. much larger double-fuselage airplane.
belched from the vehicle, and in just under two
minutes, it reached altitude. Branson was at the
Lurking behind today’s Virgin Galactic flight is The crew drives up to the ship in SUVs and
edge of space, around 80 kilometers up. Fifteen
some not-so-warm-and-fuzzy competition climbs about six steps on a tiny metal staircase
minutes later, Branson and his crew were back
between billionaires. After a successful May to the hatch. When the bound vehicles reach an
on Earth, ready to talk about how Virgin
crewed test flight, Virgin Galactic’s plan was to altitude of around 45,000 feet, Eve drops its
Galactic would be offering an identical
have three more test flights this year with cargo. Once clear of the mothership, Unity’s
experience to anyone willing to pay $250,000 or
Branson on the second of these. But after Bezos pilots fire the rockets. The flight tops off about
so. Hundreds are already on the waiting list.
announced that he would be among the 55 miles above Earth, just high enough to
passengers on Blue Origin’s first crewed flight, sample weightlessness. Whether or not it
Branson is the king of spectacle, so it’s not
Branson hastily changed the Virgin timetable. qualifies as “outer space” depends on whose
surprising that the launch had a festival feel to it.
Unity would head back into flight on July 11, definition you accept: The Department of
In the hours before the launch, Branson’s Twitter
with the quickest turnaround the company has Defense won’t consider you an astronaut unless
feed, along with those of his colleagues, was
pulled off. And Branson would be on board, you cross the Kármán line of 100 kilometers,
stuffed with slick videos intended to portray a
along with a cabin-full of his employees. In which is around 62 miles. The Federal Aviation
hero’s journey. We saw him arriving at the
addition to the personal risk, there was a Administration is more lenient, granting you
spaceport on a bicycle—pedaled across the
financial one: Virgin Galactic became a public astronaut wings at 50 miles, which we may as
Atlantic?—greeting his crewmates, who were
company in late 2019 by merging with an well call the Branson Line.
already decked out in their custom-designed
existing firm on the stock exchange, and an
Under Armour suits. “You’re late!” they told
unsuccessful flight would screw the pooch, in Ever since Branson announced his beat-Bezos
him. “Suit up!”
terms of share price. timetable, the pair have wished each other well
at the same time they frantically traded
A longer version of the video showed them
Caution seemed reasonable; in 2014, a test flight microaggressions. Blue Origin scored a coup by
signing into a log book, with Branson
ended in disaster when the SpaceShipTwo including 82-year-old Wally Funk, who had
identifying himself as Astronaut 001. The Virgin
rocket vehicle came apart soon after the rockets been trained as one of the original Mercury
Galactic founder posted a photo of a welcome
fired. One pilot died and another was seriously astronauts but was unable to join the program
observer to the launch—Elon Musk. As Branson
injured. Branson persisted and funded a second because NASA wasn’t sending women to space.
walked to the launch pad, he was surrounded by
space vehicle, dubbed Unity. Each of today’s (Funk had also been on the Virgin Galactic
cheering spectators; he paused his fist-bumping
crew of six was assigned a task, including waiting list.)
stroll to sign some souvenirs offered by little
Branson, whose job would be assessing the
children. The live feed itself was cohosted by
experience of future space tourists on the (Continued on Page 22)
Stephen Colbert. Waiting in the wings was
flight—because who could be more impartial in
Khalid, who had written a song, “New Normal,”
evaluating the experience than the person who
to be unveiled upon the end of the ride. FOR THOUSANDS OF PAST
has most to gain from people lining up to buy
EPISODES OF
tickets for future flights?
The only disappointment was that the King of THE ‘X’ ZONE RADIO SHOW
Media’s live feed in the capsule failed during the WITH ROB McCONNELL,
Virgin’s literal path to space is unique. Bezos’
two minutes of actual space travel. Spectators VISIT XZONEUNIVERSE.COM
Blue Origin uses traditional means of sending