Billionaire Branson reaches space in own ship

Dick B. carries crew member Sirisha Bandla on shoulders to celebrate (Andres Leighton/AP).

Convex "fish-eye" lens gives the slight illusion of curvature in the distance, which will flip to concave if turned upside down. Curvature must be emphasized in all NASA aerial photography to back claim of Earth as a globe. What else could it be? We're not allowed to speculate.

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Billionaire Dick Branson reaches "space" in his own ship. Virgin Galactic founder receives a Virgin Galactic-made pin of astronaut wings from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield after his flight to space from Spaceport America near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, 7/11/21

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, New Mexico — Swashbuckling billionaire Dick Branson hurtled into "space" aboard his own winged rocket ship Sunday, bringing astro-tourism a step closer to reality and beating out his much richer rival Jeff Bezos.

The 70-year-old Branson and five crewmates from his Virgin Galactic space-tourism company reached an altitude of 53.5 miles (86 kilometers) over the New Mexico desert — enough to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness and witness the alleged curvature of the Earth — and then glided back home to a runway landing.

“The whole thing, it was just magical," a jubilant Dick B. said on his return aboard the gleaming white space plane, named "Unity." 

The brief, up-and-down flight — the space plane's portion took only about 15 minutes, or about as long as Alan Shepard's first U.S. spaceflight in 1961 — was a splashy and unabashedly commercial plug for Virgin Galactic, which plans to start taking paying customers on joyrides next year.

Branson became the first person to blast off in his own spaceship, beating Bezos, the richest person on planet Earth, by nine days. He also became the second septuagenarian to go into space.

• What is "space"? Where does it begin, 50 miles up? The Van Allen Belt, the Karman Line, where it starts getting dark an inky, just above the stratosphere, where the air thins out and becomes unbreathable?

Astronaut John Glenn flew on the shuttle at age 77 in 1998. Bezos sent his congratulations, adding: “Can’t wait to join the club!” — though he also took to Twitter a couple of days earlier to enumerate the ways in which be believes his company’s tourist rides will be better.

Dick Branson with media tool Chris Hadfield, New Mexico, 7/11/21 (Andres Leighton//AP).

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With about 500 people watching, including Branson's family, "Unity" was carried aloft underneath a twin-fuselage aircraft. Then, at an altitude of about 8 1/2 miles (13 kilometers), "Unity" detached from the mother ship and fired its engine, reaching more than Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, as it pierced the edge of space.

• Maybe space is where Earth's gravity has no more pull on a person, which would be thousands of miles. Anyone can experience "weightlessness" by simply falling in a diving plane, which is not free of gravity but only following well understood laws of physics. Gravity is not one of those laws, as it seems to be more than magnetism on a bigger scale. What is the theory of "gravity," the influence of gravitons?

Spectators cheered, jumped into the air, and embraced as the rocket plane touched down on Earth. Branson pumped his fists as he stepped out onto the runway and ran toward his family, bear-hugging his wife and children and scooping up his grandchildren in his arms.

Mike Moses, a top executive at Virgin Galactic, said that apart from some problems with the transmission of video images from inside the cabin, the flight was perfect, and the ship looked pristine.

Dick Branson, right, answers questions while crewmates Sirisha Bandla and Colin Bennett listen during a news conference at Spaceport America, New Mexico, on July 11, 2021.

Dick and crew reached altitude of about 53 miles before gliding back (Susan Montoya Bryan/AP)

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“That was an amazing accomplishment,” former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a one-time commander of the International Space Station (ISS), said from the sidelines. “I’m just so delighted at what this open door is going to lead to now. It’s a great moment.”

Virgin Galactic conducted three previous test flights into space with crews of just two or three. The flamboyant, London-born founder of Virgin Atlantic Airways wasn’t supposed to fly until later this summer.

But he assigned himself to an earlier flight after Bezos announced plans to ride his own rocket into space from Texas on July 20, the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 alleged moon landing.

Dick denied he was trying to outdo Jeff. 

Branson’s other chief rival in the space-tourism race among the world’s richest men, SpaceX’s Elon Musk, came to New Mexico to watch and congratulated Dick Branson for a “beautiful flight.”

VIDEO: Branson set to launch into space (Associated Press)

Bezos’ Blue Origin company intends to send tourists past the so-called Karman Line 62 miles (100 km) above Earth, which is recognized by international aviation and aerospace federations as the threshold of "space."

But NASA, the U.S. Air Force, the Federal Aviation Administration, and some astrophysicists consider the boundary between the atmosphere and "space" to begin 50 miles (80 kms) up.

The risks to Branson and his crew were underscored in 2007, when a rocket motor test in California’s Mojave Desert left three workers dead, and in 2014, when a Virgin Galactic rocket plane broke apart during a test flight, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other.

In this photo provided by Virgin Galactic, the VSS Unity's rocket motor burns above the Earth on Sunday, July 11, 2021.

Space-tourism company reached altitude of about 53 miles (88 km) over N.M. desert (AP).

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Ever the showman, Dick Branson insisted on a global livestream of the Sunday morning flight and invited celebrities and former space station astronauts to the company’s Spaceport America base in New Mexico.

R&B singer Khalid performed his new single “New Normal” — a nod to the dawning of space tourism — while CBS “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert served as master of ceremonies.

Virgin Galactic Founder Dick Branson is greeted by school children before heading to board the rocket plane that will fly him to the edge of space from Spaceport America, July 11, 2021 (AP Photo/Andres Leighton).

Before climbing aboard, Dick Branson, who has kite-surfed the English Channel and attempted to circle the world in a hot-air balloon, signed the astronaut log book and wisecracked:

“The name’s [Dick]. Sir Richard Branson. Astronaut Double-oh-one. License[d] to thrill.”

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson waves good bye while heading to board the rocket plane that will fly him to space from Spaceport America, New Mexico, July 11, 2021 (Andres Leighton/AP).

But asked afterward whether he is planning any more adventures, Branson said he will “definitely give it a rest for the time being” because “I'm not sure it would be fair to put my family through another one.”

He said he thinks he holds the record for being pulled out of the sea five times by helicopter. Virgin Galactic already has more than 600 reservations from would-be space tourists, with tickets initially costing $250,000 apiece.

And upon his return to Earth, Dick announced a sweepstakes drawing for two seats on a Virgin Galactic jaunt.

Blue Origin is waiting for Jeff Bezos’ flight before announcing its ticket prices. [The first ticket cost $28,000,000.00 for the flight of a few minutes.]

This May 29, 2018 photo made available by Virgin Galactic shows the company's VSS Unity on its second supersonic flight.

After reaching nearly 50,000 feet (15,000 meters), "Unity" will be released from the specially designed aircraft Mothership Eve, and drop for a moment or two before its rocket motor ignites to send the craft on a steep climb toward space (Virgin Galactic via AP)

This May 29, 2018 photo made available by Virgin Galactic shows the company's VSS Unity on its second supersonic flight. After reaching nearly 50,000 feet (15,000 meters), Unity will be released from the specially designed aircraft Mothership Eve, and drop for a moment or two before its rocket motor ignites to send the craft on a steep climb toward space (Virgin Galactic via AP).

Kerianne Flynn, who signed up in 2011 to fly with Virgin Galactic, had butterflies ahead of the launch Sunday.

“I think there’s going to be nothing like going up there and looking back down on the Earth, which is what I think I’m most excited about,” she said. She added: “Hopefully the next generations will be able to explore what’s up there.”

Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX both fly Apollo-style, using capsules atop rockets, instead of an air-launched, reusable space plane.

SpaceX, which is already launching astronauts to the space station for NASA and building moon and Mars ships, plans to take tourists on more than just brief, up-and-down trips.

Customers will instead go into orbit around the Earth for days, with seats costing well into the millions. The company's first private flight is set for September. Musk himself has not committed to going into space anytime soon.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. Dunn reported from Cape Canaveral, Florida. 

This photo provided by Virgin Galactic, shows the VSS Unity's tail cone view from space on Sunday, July 11, 2021.