Who doesn’t know who Richard Branson is? At the young age of fifteen he founded a counterculture magazine that was meant to push for change in the world. It set the pace for all he would pursue later on.
He continued his trend to change the world back in the 1970s when he founded Virgin Records. They were a mail-order record retailer. What a novel concept. He signed the Rolling Stones and the Sex Pistols and made them mainstream names in no time. To date, there are more than forty Virgin companies located in over thirty-five countries.
Branson is also a true blue water sailor and holds the fastest record for crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Afterward he went on to do some kite surfing and balloon races. Always on the edge of danger, yet making it look effortless.
In 2004 Branson founded Virgin Unite, a not-for-profit to connect people to entrepreneurial ideas and opportunities across the globe. From this venture, he created Elders, B Team, and Ocean Unite.
Branson created Virgin Galactic to be a commercial space line as in space airline. The premise of this commercial venture is to make space flight accessible to regular people. Of course, space flight is not a cheap trip, and as such mostly moneyed people have been able to access this special flight to date. Over time perhaps some less fortunate people can also make it into space. I know I would love to be one of them.
Virgin Galactic’s path at this time into space consists of an air-launch craft called Eve, and a six-passenger space plane named VSS Unity. VSS Unity flies under Eve’s wings until they reach an altitude of fifty thousand feet. VSS Unity is then detached from Eve and powered by her onboard rocket motor that takes the six passengers into suborbital space where they are able to experience Mach 2 plus, weightlessness, and view the earth from space. They spend a few minutes in space and then VSS Unity floats back down to Earth landing on a runway. Pretty cool right?
So far VSS Unity had made this journey five times. The most recent one was on May 25th, 2023. And they hope to make this trek on a monthly basis. What’s next?
Virgin Galactic wants to devise a new fleet of space planes to be ready by 2026 called the “Delta Class” that is able to fly into space on a weekly basis. The price for these trips is currently $450,000 which is not accessible to everyone. It is their plan to make the prices less so more people are able to partake in this amazing venture.
From the website https://www.virgingalactic.com/spacecraft-fleet you can sign up to fly with Virgin Galactic VSS Unity and Eve. You are also able to keep abreast of their latest developments. Enjoy!
References:
https://www.virgin.com/branson-family/richard-branson
https://www.virgingalactic.com/spacecraft-fleet