Previously, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos: the founder of Virgin Galactic flew into space on his ship. Or is it not space?

The space race used to involve countries, but now private companies have entered it and are developing their own spaceships to fly into space. Yesterday, July 11, there was a successful Virgin Galactic Unity-22 mission by Virgin Galactic, which plans future tourist flights into space.

How it was

In fact, this is the first flight with passengers on board. In addition to the pilots, there were four passengers on board - Virgin Galactic employees. Among them there is the 71-year-old founder of the company, Richard Branson.

“As a child, I dreamed of the stars, looking at them. Now I am flying in a spaceship and looking at our stunning Earth. If we have achieved this, imagine what the next generations of dreamers will be able to do. "

As part of the mission, the VSS Unity spacecraft with passengers and pilots rose to an altitude of about 15-20 kilometers with the help of a carrier plane, then separated from the booster and reached an altitude of about 80 kilometers with the help of a jet engine. For several minutes, the crew members felt weightlessness, and then the ship gradually descended back to Earth. As a result, the ship successfully landed at the Virgin Galactic Cosmodrome in New Mexico.

But now there are discussions about whether this flight can be considered a space flight. The fact is that the generally recognized boundary of space, adopted by the International Aviation Federation, starts from a height of 100 kilometers. But by the standards of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA, space starts at 80 km.

In any case, Branson became the first billionaire to fly into space in his own ship. Even Elon Musk has not yet had such an experience. But the head of Amazon and Blue Origin Jeff Bezos will make a similar flight on July 20. On the New Shepard spacecraft, he will go into space with several passengers, including his brother, 82-year-old American pilot Wally Funk and an anonymous person who paid as much as $ 28 million for the ticket at the auction.

By the way, Virgin Galactic plans to start the first tourist flights into space next year. The ticket price is about $ 250,000.

Source: Virgin Galactic