Virgin Galactic, an American private company aiming for commercial-based space travel, made a test flight of a spacecraft with its founder Richard Branson and others on the 11th, and reached outer space.

Virgin Galactic, an American space development company planning a business to provide space travel to the general public with a spacecraft developed by itself, will be at Spaceport America, an airport dedicated to spacecraft in western New Mexico on the 11th. We conducted a test flight with the founder Richard Branson and others.



The spacecraft was suspended by a large plane and took off, and was separated from the plane about 15,000 meters above the ground.



The spacecraft that ignited the rocket engine and climbed reached an altitude of about 86 kilometers, which was defined by the US Air Force as "outer space."



Branson and his colleagues experienced weightlessness, such as floating and rotating on board for several minutes, and landed safely in about an hour after takeoff.



Virgin Galactic has been licensed by the FAA = Federal Aviation Administration to carry passengers on a commercial space flight prior to this flight and hopes to begin a commercial space trip soon.



On the 20th of this month, "Blue Origin", which was founded by the founder of IT giant Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is also planning the first space flight with Mr. Bezos and others, and the realization of commercial space travel by private companies is approaching. I will.

What is Richard Branson?

Richard Branson, 70, is the founder of the British corporate group Virgin Group. Known as a millionaire, he has also been awarded the title of "Knight" by the British royal family.



Mr. Branson founded a record company in 1973, and in 1984 he founded the airline "Virgin Atlantic". Since then, we have continued to expand our business in fields such as telecommunications, travel, and financial services around the world.



In addition to "Virgin Galactic," which aims for commercial space travel, "Virgin Orbit," which operates an artificial satellite launch business, is also under the umbrella of the group.



Mr. Branson has taken on various adventures such as successfully crossing the Atlantic Ocean with a hot-air balloon, and introduced himself as an "adventurer who hates ties" on his Twitter account.