Richard Branson set to beat Jeff Bezos to space and reveals image of the team

BRITISH billionaire, Richard Branson, is set to beat rival and fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to space.

Branson’s company, Virgin Galactic, made an announcement yesterday, Thursday, July 1, that he will attempt to fly his company’s rocket-powered plane on July 11. This will be nine days before Jeff Bezos’s planned mission on July 20.

This will mean that Branson will be the first billionaire to travel to space, using a craft that he helped fund.

Today, Branson released an image on his Facebook page of the team that will be heading to space on the Virgin rocket.

I’ve always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. On July 11, it’s time to turn that dream into a reality aboard the next @VirginGalactic spaceflight https://t.co/x0ksfnuEQ3 #Unity22 pic.twitter.com/GWskcMSXyA

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 1, 2021

“It’s one thing to have a dream of making space more accessible to all; it’s another for an incredible team to collectively turn that dream into reality. As part of a remarkable crew of mission specialists, I’m honoured to help validate the journey our future astronauts will undertake and ensure we deliver the unique customer experience people expect from Virgin,” Branson said in his blog.

“Along with pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci flying VSS Unity, and CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer flying VMS Eve, I’ll be joined by mission crew specialists Beth Moses, Chief Astronaut Instructor; Colin Bennett, Lead Operations Engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations. They helped build this unique program, along with the entire team.

“I truly believe that space belongs to all of us. After 17 years of research, engineering and innovation, Virgin Galactic stands at the vanguard of a new commercial space industry poised to open the universe to humankind and change the world for good,” he added.

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