Space race between billionaires: Richard Branson wants to get there before Jeff Bezos
Richard Branson (right) has announced that he will be the first milliardarian to go into space with Virgin Galactic on July 11 (Image illustration).
GETTY / AFP / File
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The space race was packed Thursday, July 1 among milliardiares.
The wealthy Briton Richard Branson aims to go to space aboard the Virgin Galactic company ship from July 11.
He hopes to tackle his rival Jeff Bezos, whose trip to zero gravity is planned for him ... on July 20.
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The competition rages between the two men.
Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos both started space tourism companies, which offer short suborbital flights.
In early June, the boss of Amazon announced that he would be part of the crew of the first manned flight of the New Shepard rocket, developed by his company Blue Origin.
He thus thought to steal the scoop from Richard Branson, who had long said he wanted to participate in a test of Virgin Galactic, before the start of regular commercial operations announced for 2022.
But the Briton pulled the rug out from under his competitor's foot on Thursday, declaring that he would be among four people aboard the VSS Unity spacecraft, which is due to take off on July 11 in New Mexico.
The schedule is however suspended to weather conditions as well as to "
technical checks
", Virgin Galactic said in a statement.
►Also read: Blue Origin, Space X, Virgin Galactic: the private sector storming Space
Spend a few minutes in zero gravity
The machines developed by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are very different, even if the result for the passengers will ultimately be more or less the same: a few minutes in weightlessness.
In the case of Virgin Galactic, a carrier plane will take off from a runway and then drop at altitude the spacecraft hanging under it, which will ignite its engines until it reaches an altitude of 80 km, then descend while hovering.
This height is that fixed in the United States for the space border.
At Blue Origin, it is a more “
classic
”
rocket
, which will take off vertically.
The capsule will separate at about 75 km in height, continuing its trajectory until exceeding 100 km in altitude - the Karman line, which marks the beginning of space according to the international convention.
The prestigious passengers will then be able to detach themselves from their seats and observe the curvature of the Earth.
Then the capsule will begin a free fall to return to Earth, and will be slowed down by three large parachutes and retro rockets before landing in a desert in West Texas.
The trip will take a total of 11 minutes.
Communication war
The battle between the two competitors is accompanied by a communication war.
Thursday, Jeff Bezos also hit hard by presenting his passenger "
of honor
" for the flight of July 20.
Wally Funk, 82, was invited to fly alongside Amazon founder, brother Mark and the anonymous winner of an auction.
She will then become the oldest person to travel in space, a record held so far by the American astronaut John Glenn, at 77 years old.
As for the third billionaire in the space race, Elon Musk, founder of Space X, he aims to send the first manned mission to Mars, recalls
Agnieszka Kumor
, from RFI's economy department.
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