By akademiotoelektronik, 24/01/2023

Billionaire Richard Branson plans to go to the space before Jeff Bezos

The final sprint between billionaires to fly to space is launched.Briton Richard Branson announced Thursday that he planned to fly away on July 11 aboard a Virgin Galactic vessel.Hoping to style his rival Jeff Bezos at the post, whose disgusting trip is scheduled for… July 20.

Competition rages between the two men, who both created space tourism companies, positioned in the short suborbital flight sector.In early June, Jeff Bezos announced that he would be part of the crew of the first inhabited flight of the New Shepard rocket, developed by his company Blue Origin.

He was thinking of stealing the premiere at Richard Branson, who had long said he wanted to participate in a Virgin Galactic test, before the start of regular commercial operations announced for 2022.But the Briton in turn cut the grass under the foot of his competitor, declaring that he would be among the four people on board the VSS Unity vessel, who must therefore take off in a little more than a week in the new Mexico.

Commercial flights in 2022

"The window for the next flight test for Spaceshipptwo Unity opens on July 11, subject to weather and technical checks," said Virgin Galactic in a press release.Richard Branson "will assess the experience of private astronaut and follow the same training, preparation and theft as future astronauts from Virgin Galactic".The flight will, for the first time, broadcast live online by the company.

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Two pilots will be on the carrier plane, and four people, including Richard Branson, in the ship called VSS Unity."I really believe that space belongs to everyone," said the billionaire, quoted in the press release.After this one, two additional tests are planned before the start of regular commercial flights in 2022, detailed Virgin Galactic.

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A Ticket at 28 million dollars

The day before the announcement of his space rival, Jeff Bezos also struck hard by presenting his “honor” passenger for the flight of July 20.An 82 -year -old woman, Wally Funk, was invited to fly alongside the founder of Amazon.She will then become the oldest person to travel in space, a record hitherto owned by the American astronaut John Glenn, at 77 years old.

On board will also be the brother of Jeff Bezos, Mark, and the mysterious winner of a auction, whose name has not yet been revealed but who paid $ 28 million to participate.

Weightless

The devices developed by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are very different, even if the result for passengers will ultimately be significantly the same: a few minutes in weightlessness.In the case of Virgin Galactic, a promising plane will take off a track and then drop at altitude the vessel hanging under him, which will light his engines until reaching 80 km altitude, then will go down by hovering.This height is that fixed in the United States for the space border.

At Blue Origin, it is a more "classic" rocket, which will take off vertically.The capsule will separate at around 75 km high, continuing its trajectory until exceeding the 100 km above sea level - the "Karman line", which marks the start of the space according to the International Convention.The prestigious passengers will then be able to detach themselves from their seats and observe the curvature of the earth.Then the capsule will start a free fall to return to the earth, and will be hampered by three large parachutes and retrofuses before landing in a desert in western Texas.The trip will last 11 minutes in total.