Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic becomes first billionaire in space

Published July 11, 2021 3:30pm ET



Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson made history on Sunday, becoming the first billionaire to fly to space on a private crewed mission.

Three Virgin Galactic employees and two pilots joined Branson for his company’s first full-crewed spaceflight, the Unity 22 Mission. The winged mothership, called the VMS Eve, took off from the Spaceport America runway in New Mexico and climbed to approximately 50,000 feet before the second phase, when the VSS Unity spaceship released and climbed nearly 300,000 feet above Earth at speeds slightly over Mach 3.

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