Page 22 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2021

22 Sir Richard Branson Reaches Space

Richard Branson Reaches

Space on Virgin Galactic’s

VSS Unity

Continued from Page 21

But Branson scored points when SpaceX CEO
Elon Musk decided to show up at the New
Mexico spaceport to cheer him on. Late in the
week, Blue Origin released a testy head-to-head
comparison between the two systems. Bigger
windows! Better for the environment! And, most
pointedly, it emphasized that Blue Origin’s New
Shepard capsule clears the Kármán line, which it
considers “real” space. A Virgin Galactic pilot
sent a huffy tweet (later deleted) noting that Blue
Origin has so far only flown a mannequin. On
the eve of the flight, Bezos did post tepid
encouragement: “Wishing you and the whole
team a successful and safe flight tomorrow. Best landing. Atlantic Airways wasn't supposed to fly until
of luck!” he posted on Instagram. later this summer. But he assigned himself to an
"The whole thing, it was just magical," a jubilant earlier flight after Bezos announced plans to ride
Indeed, luck was with Branson today. True, Branson said after the trip home aboard the his own rocket into space from Texas on July 20,
Virgin Galactic’s claims that this flight is a gleaming white space plane, named Unity. the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon
groundbreaking one for commercial space is landing. Branson denied he was trying to outdo
somewhat overblown. Russia was first to charge The brief, up-and-down flight — the rocket Bezos.
astronauts for rides into space. The first private ship's portion took only about 15 minutes, or
crewed space launch came with Virgin’s about as long as Alan Shepard's first U.S. Branson's other chief rival in the space-tourism
predecessor, Scaled Composites. (Branson paid spaceflight in 1961 — was a splashy and race among the world's richest men, SpaceX's
to brand it with the Virgin logo and later bought unabashedly commercial plug for Virgin Elon Musk, came to New Mexico to witness the
Allen’s assets.) SpaceX was the first private Galactic, which plans to start taking paying flight, wishing Branson via Twitter,
company to send astronauts into orbit. Blue customers on joyrides next year. "Godspeed!"
Origin will be the first private company to
charge a private passenger. Branson became the first person to blast off in Bezos's Blue Origin company intends to send
his own spaceship, beating Bezos by nine days. tourists past the so-called Kármán line 100
But give Branson this: Virgin Galactic is the first He also became only the second septuagenarian kilometres above Earth, which is recognized by
space tourism company to send its billionaire to go into space. Astronaut John Glenn flew on international aviation and aerospace federations
owner into space, at least space as defined by the the shuttle at age 77 in 1998. as the threshold of space.
FAA. Branson will forever have that bragging
right. And one expects he will exercise it Bezos sent his congratulations, adding: "Can't But NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the Federal
endlessly. wait to join the club!" — though he also took to Aviation Administration and some
Twitter earlier in the week to enumerate the astrophysicists consider the boundary between
'It was just magical': ways in which be believes his company's rides the atmosphere and space to begin at 80
will be better. kilometres and up.
Billionaire Richard
With about 500 people watching, including The risks to Branson and his crew were
Branson flies to space
Branson's family, a twin-fuselage craft with underscored in 2007, when a rocket motor test in
aboard his own ship Unity attached underneath took off in the first California's Mojave Desert left three workers
stage of the flight. Unity then detached from the dead, and in 2014, when a Virgin Galactic rocket
mother ship at an altitude of about 13 kilometres plane broke apart during a test flight, killing one
Brief flight a splashy and and fired its engine, reaching more than Mach 3, pilot and seriously injuring the other.
unabashedly commercial plug for or three times the speed of sound, as it pierced
the edge of space. Dawn of space tourism
Branson's Virgin Galactic
Spectators cheered, jumped into the air and Ever the showman, Branson insisted on a global
Associated Press embraced as the rocket plane touched down. live stream of the Sunday morning flight and
Branson pumped his fists as he stepped out onto invited celebrities and former space station
the runway and ran toward his family, bear- astronauts to the company's Spaceport America
Swashbuckling entrepreneur Richard Branson hugging his wife and children and scooping up base in New Mexico.
hurtled into space aboard his own winged rocket his three grandchildren in his arms.
ship on Sunday, beating out fellow billionaire R&B singer Khalid performed his new single
Jeff Bezos. "That was an amazing accomplishment," former New Normal — a nod to the dawning of space
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a one-time tourism — while CBS Late Show host Stephen

The nearly 71-year-old Branson and five commander of the International Space Station, Colbert served as master of ceremonies.
crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space- said from the sidelines. "I'm just so delighted at
tourism company reached an altitude of about 88 what this open door is going to lead to now. It's (Continued on Page 23)
kilometres over the New Mexico desert — a great moment."
enough to experience three to four minutes of Do you have a story that you would like to
weightlessness and see the curvature of the Virgin Galactic conducted three previous test have published in The ‘X’ Chronicles?
Earth — and then safely glided to a runway flights into space with crews of just two or three. Email: publisher@xchroniclesnewspaper.com
The flamboyant, London-born founder of Virgin