After Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson now also wants to go to space. He said the owner of the Virgin empire is ready for a flight with the space company Virgin Galactic. “I’m coach and well. If the technicians say I can come, I’m ready.” There are rumors that Branson will go to space as early as this weekend, when Independence Day is celebrated in the United States.
And that would outperform British billionaire Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. The richest man on Earth will leave the planet on July 20 aboard a flight from his space company, Blue Origin. Then he joins his brother two weeks after he returns from Amazon. He also auctioned a place on that trip for $28 million.
However, there is a difference between the two spaceflights. Virgin Galactic flies by first launching its missile plane paired with a regular aircraft. After separation, the rocket jet then moves to the edge of the atmosphere. Bezos’ Blue Origin uses a rocket that travels from the launch site in Texas to an altitude of more than 100 kilometers before the spacecraft returns to Earth.
Branson and Bezos aren’t the only billionaires in spaceflight. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also owns the space company SpaceX. This company already flies for NASA and launches commercial rockets that carry satellites into space, among other things. Musk has yet to announce any specific plans for a space flight.
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