Will Richard Branson be the first billionaire in space?

Speaker 1: Virgins Richard Branson plans to be the first billionaire space thereby beating Jeff Bezos by a few days. Let's talk about it. Speaker 1: The plan is for Branson to hit, to ride on Virgin gala galas spaceship two unity on July 11th. The mission is called unity 22. This is the 22nd flight test for the rocket powered space plane V SS unity. [00:00:30] This is the fourth crude Virgin space flight. This would also be the first time Branson would get to space. Something he's been trying to do for several years on whether he's trying to beat Amazon's Jeff Bezos to space. Branson said that quote. It really doesn't matter whether one of us goes a few days before the other. The timing does seem a little strange though. Bezos had already announced his intent to travel to space. His travel date is set for July 20th. Branson was not a originally scheduled to be [00:01:00] on the flight on July 11th. His announcement also happened on the same day. Bezos announced that Wally funk would join him on his flight. Speaker 1: Funk was a part of a group of women who passed these same tests as early NASA astronauts. But Richard Branson wants to go to space and he happens to be the founder of a space travel company, Virgin galactic. So he's headed to space. If you're UN familiar with Richard Branson, let's give you a little bio. He founded Virgin way back in 1970. The company sold records as in vinyl records [00:01:30] through the mail at low prices. Over the years, Virgin grew to include Virgin records, Virgin mega stores, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin, hyper loop, and Virgin brides. That last one is not what to think. It was a failed bridal store. Here are pictures of Branson and a wedding dress to prove it. Richard Branson is kind of a thrill seeker and a record seeker in 1985. He tried to cross the Atlantic ocean in record breaking fashion and a power boat. Speaker 1: That attempt is frequently called a [00:02:00] disaster as the ship sunk off the Southwest coast of England in 1986, Branson tried again this time he successfully set the world record. He's crossed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans via hot air balloon. He's also tried to go around the world in a balloon a couple of times, but that didn't work out. Branson is also the oldest person to kite surf across the English channel while he is doing all this Branson is also building the Virgin empire. And in 2004, Virgin gala galactic is formed [00:02:30] its spaceship. Two space plane was unveiled in 2009. That vehicle was designed for space tourism, Virgin Galactic's first self-powered flight happened in 2013. Here's how spaceship two works. It's attached to another aircraft called white Knight. Two spaceship two is then carried to a launch altitude by white Knight two. When that altitude is reached, spaceship two is released. Speaker 1: Then spaceship two goes into the upper atmosphere using [00:03:00] its rocket engine spaceship two completed 54 test flights between 2009 and 2014 in 2014. Branson said that he hoped to be on the first commercial flight either in 2014 or 2015, everything has not been perfect with Virgin gala galactic in 2014 space, two crashed during a test flight in the Mojave desert. The accident claimed the life of one of the pilots. Mike Alsbury Virgin galactic kept going in 2018. The company celebrated the first human [00:03:30] space flight since the final space shuttle mission in 2011, it's worth noting that Virgin Galactic's flights do not enter low earth orbit, but reach about 90 kilometers in altitude. A couple of years later, it looked like Branson was going to space. What year was that? 2020. Yeah, that got scrapped due to the pandemic that brings us 10. Now July 11th is the date. Speaker 1: Branson is scheduled to head to space. This is Virgin gala. Galactic's first, fully crude flights test. It will two pilots [00:04:00] and four mission specialists, which includes Branson. What will he do up there? The press release says Branson will evaluate the private astronaut experience. The company will use his observations from his flight training and space flight experience to enhance their journey for all future astronaut customers. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos is heading into space on July 20th. The ship is called new shepherd and it's the first crude mission for blue origin Bezos's company. All the other blue origin missions [00:04:30] have had no humans inside on July 20th. The whole blue origin mission is expected to last 10 to 15 minutes. How long will Richard Branson's mission last will? Well, a test flight in may lasted a little over an hour from takeoff to landing. Whereas blue origin is automated. Virgin gala. Galactic has human pilots at the controls. So the Virgin galactic flight has a bit of flexibility. We will be live streaming the unity 22 mission@cnet.com and our highlights channel [00:05:00] on YouTube. Am I Acthar reminding you that several monkeys, dogs and frogs have beaten both Branson and Bezos to space.