Richard Branson, the 70-year-old CEO of Virgin Galactic, is going to space on July 11 aboard the SpaceShipTwo vehicle. During its first full-crew mission, the spaceship, named VSS Unity, will climb over 50 miles (80 km) in the atmosphere.

Branson will travel to space before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos whose space trip is slated for July 20.

VSS Unity will be captained by two pilots — Dave Mackay and Mike Masucci. Beth Moses, Chief astronaut instructor at Virgin Galatic; Colin Bennett, lead operations engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president for government affairs and research will accompany Branson on the mission.

"I can't wait," Branson told Today. "At that moment, we will have become astronauts. I will pinch myself and pinch myself again and again."

The mission will be broadcast on the company’s YouTube channel, while other websites will be syndicating the live feed as well. The broadcast will start at 9 amEDT (GMT -4:00) July 11. The company is also expected to run a live feed of updates on its Twitter channel, though the same has not been confirmed yet. However, the company’s broadcast can be viewed through this link:

VSS Unity would launch sometime early in the morning from the Mojave Desert, New Mexico. The spaceship will be launched by its carrier aircraft, named as VMS Eve, at an altitude of 9 miles (15 km). From there the VSS Unity would start its self-propelled ascent to sub-orbital space at a height of 55 miles (88 km) above sea level.

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Jul 9, 2021 5:12 PM IST