Did Richard Branson actually make it to space?

The Virgin boss is the early winner in the billionaire space race – but now an argument is brewing over where the finish line should be.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson carries crew member Sirisha Bandla on his shoulders while celebrating their flight to space. AP

Luke Mintz

Jul 15, 2021 – 10.04am

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It took just 59 minutes for Sir Richard Branson to fulfil his childhood dream. On Sunday morning, at the Spaceport launch station in the New Mexico desert, the 70-year-old British billionaire climbed aboard the VSS Unity. His cheeks puffed as the rocket blasted through a cloudless sky, reaching a high point of 89 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.

At the top, Sir Richard and his five fellow astronauts floated around for several minutes in a state of weightlessness. They would have been able to see about half of America’s land mass, including the white snow-capped mountains of the Rockies, plus the striking blue of the Pacific Ocean – a view that “sticks in your soul”, according to American astronaut Beth Moses, who was also on board.

The Telegraph London