A billionaire entrepreneur says Virgin Galactic is close to the start of the first space mission.
British entrepreneur Richard Branson said that Virgin Galactic’s first space launch is now expected in weeks, not months. Speaking in Singapore, he said that he himself hopes to break away from Earth in the near future.
Branson's company is now competing for launch speed with Amazon creator Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin company. This is the first unscheduled passenger launch into space. Both companies plan to offer customers a flight in weightlessness with a coverage of a few minutes. It is necessary to cross an imaginary line (Karman line), where the space begins - about 100 km. At this height, the sky becomes dark and the earth's curvature is clearly visible.
The first space tourists who visited the ISS orbital station in the 2000s paid tens of millions of dollars. Branson says that now it costs $ 250,000 for a ticket to Virgin Galactic. But he hopes that the price will drop to 40000-50000 dollars over the next decade.
