• The most exclusive vacations Space tourism finally takes off in 2021

  • Ana Bru The first Spanish woman with a ticket to travel to space: "It is the beginning of a new era"

  • With Blue Origin Wally Funk, one of the 'Mercury 13' who was not allowed to be an astronaut because she was a woman, will go to space with Bezos

"It is a beautiful day to travel to space."

British billionaire Richard Branson is already at Spaceport America, the spaceport built in New Mexico, USA, which today will experience one of the most decisive moments for the launch of space tourism.

By bike, he arrived this morning at the facilities built in the desert to join the team with which the founder of the aerospace company Virgin Galactic will get on his ship at 4.30 p.m. to carry out one of the last tests before starting his program

suborbital tourist flights.

The

Unity22 mission

is made up of two pilots and four specialists, including Branson (in the photo, fourth from the left), in charge of noting the experience that his future clients will have as space tourists.

Branson with the team with whom he will make this test flight V.G.

Traveling with him (left to right) Dave Mackay, chief pilot;

Colin Bennett, engineer responsible for operations;

Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor, Sirisha Bandla, vice president of operations and research, and pilot Michael Masucci.

If all goes according to plan, the flight will take a little over an hour and a half.

Branson's

VSS Unity

ship

takes off attached to the manned mothership,

VMS Eve (named after the mogul's mother).

The first 45 minutes pass like in a commercial airplane.

When the altitude is approximately 15 km, the two ships disengage.

After a few seconds of fall, the

VSS Unity

will propel itself at around 4,000 km / hour, reaching approximately 90 km in a minute and a half (in a previous test it reached 89 km).

At that point, the crew members will unbuckle their seat belts to experience zero gravity for about four minutes and float through the ship.

Then they will start the return to land in the desert.

Richard Branson, who will turn 71 on July 18, announced in 2014 his intention to travel to space with his family, a dream that he will finally be able to make come true today. It has not been a bed of roses. His program, which should have started in 2009 to carry space tourists, suffered a major setback in 2014 when a pilot died during one of the tests.

Although the plan was to make the first suborbital flight with his family once the program began, Branson has gone ahead by deciding to participate himself in one of the trial tests as a specialist.

About twenty tests have preceded this Sunday's flight with which Branson has managed to get ahead of Jeff Bezos, owner of Blue Origin, who on July 20 will also get on his spacecraft, the

New Shepard,

for the

first time

for a suborbital flight.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Science and Health

  • science

Environment Pollution falls to the lowest levels in the last decade due to the pandemic

Stories Saving the loggerhead turtle: this is how the first born in the Canary Islands for centuries will arrive in Fuerteventura

ScienceSummer Solstice in an astronomical key: 10 things you should know about the season

See links of interest

  • Last News

  • Work calendar

  • Home THE WORLD TODAY

  • Master Investigation Journalism

  • France-Spain, live

  • Stage 15 of the Tour, live: Céret - Andorra la Vella

  • Novak Djokovic - Matteo Berrettini, live