Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson is attempting to make history on Sunday as the first billionaire in space.
He, along with three other Virgin Galactic employees, set off on the company’s first full-crewed spaceflight, Unity 22 Mission, just after 10:30 am EDT. The winged mothership called the VMS Eve took off from New Mexico and is expected to climb to approximately 50,000 feet before the second phase, when the VSS Unity spaceship will release and climb nearly 300,000 feet above Earth at speeds slightly over Mach 3.
Sunday’s launch comes nine days before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is expected to make his trip to the outer reaches alongside five passengers on July 20 via his private space company Blue Origin.
