Richard Branson reached the edge of space and safely returned to Earth, an hourlong trip that marks a turning point in the billionaire entrepreneur’s multidecade effort to help create a space-tourism industry.
The space trip that Mr. Branson and five other crew members completed Sunday on a Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. vessel lends credence to the company’s ability to safely take passengers to and from space.
Virgin Galactic, the company Mr. Branson founded, plans to initiate commercial service next year, charging hundreds of thousands of dollars for such flights. The test flight was aimed at evaluating systems and showing the safety of such travel in an attempt to spur the space-tourism industry. Executives also said they wanted to learn more about the passenger experience on flight.
The British entrepreneur and five crew members climbed 53.5 miles above the Earth’s surface in a spacecraft developed by Virgin Galactic. The VSS Unity landed back at the Spaceport America facility in New Mexico after a journey lasting about an hour. It successfully separated from the launch plane VMS Eve before its onboard rocket fired and sent it higher. The launch plane took off later than originally planned because of weather conditions.
At the peak of Unity’s 15-minute trip from plane to space to ground after it separated from the launch aircraft, Mr. Branson and some other crew members unbuckled from their seats as they experienced weightlessness, peering at Earth and into space from a dozen windows in the cabin.
“Welcome to the dawn of a new space age,” Mr. Branson said in a tweet after the flight.
The flight is part of a broader push from companies and investors to develop viable businesses based on human space flight, long dominated by government space agencies with scientific and policy missions. There have been instances of private space-tourist trips in the past, such as investor Dennis Tito, who in 2001 traveled on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station.
But Mr. Branson’s round-trip visit illustrates the efforts that private companies are now undertaking to develop businesses based on human space flight.
Other companies are expected to join Virgin Galactic in transporting passengers to and from space. Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, plans to fly the chief executive of a payments company to space this year.
Amazon.com Inc. founder, Jeff Bezos, has been investing in his space company, Blue Origin LLC, which plans to take him and three others to space on a company rocket on July 20. Blue Origin said it is flying to the Karman Line, a boundary some 62 miles above Earth considered to be the start of space by many. The Federal Aviation Administration defines space as starting at 50 miles, the so-called Armstrong Line.
The flight Sunday was delayed more than an hour and a half because of weather. The plane, called the VMS Eve, took off at 10:40 a.m. ET, carrying the spacecraft VSS Unity, which included Mr. Branson and five others.
After takeoff, the plane climbed into a cloudless sky. Contrails could be seen trailing behind it after it gained altitude. Roughly 45 minutes later, a red flare was visible when the spacecraft was released from the plane and fired its rocket, sending it surging up. Shortly thereafter, an announcer said Unity had reached space.
The plane and the spacecraft could be seen in the sky making their descent by 11:36 a.m. ET. The Unity circled back down to the runway and took roughly one minute from touchdown until it stopped.
Space tourism could generate close to $4 billion in annual revenue by 2030, according to an estimate last year from UBS. Human space flight carries risks, and the vehicles developed by private space companies have been tested a fraction of the number of times compared with the planes used by airlines.
Virgin Galactic has said it plans to initiate commercial space flights that generate sales in 2022. The company founded by Mr. Branson has reported 600 reservations for future flights backed by $80 million in deposits. It reported a loss of $273 million for last year and, compared with Blue Origin and SpaceX, has a business model that is more deeply tied to the emergence of a space-tourism sector.
The company hasn’t disclosed what it will charge for tickets when it starts selling them again, but prices are likely to be out of reach for most people for some time. Mr. Musk is one of the ticket holders, according to a spokesman for Virgin Galactic. In the past, Virgin Galactic has sold tickets for up to $250,000 each, according to its latest annual report.
The flight Sunday was the 22nd for Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spacecraft. Joining the 70-year-old Mr. Branson on Sunday were Beth Moses, chief astronaut instructor at Virgin Galactic; Colin Bennett, a lead operations engineer at the company; and Sirisha Bandla, a Virgin Galactic vice president focused on government affairs and research. Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci were the spacecraft’s pilots. Members of the crew had parachutes, a spokesman said.
Following a test flight in May that saw the VSS Unity reach an altitude of 55.5 miles, the Federal Aviation Administration approved a full commercial space-launch license for Virgin Galactic. Michael Colglazier, the company’s CEO said it reached all of its technical objectives during the May flight, allowing it to home in on how the trips may feel for customers. Mr. Branson’s role on Sunday’s flight was to help the company think through those issues.
Despite the FAA’s approval, the vessels used by Virgin Galactic had been tested much less than commercial planes. In 2014, a Virgin Galactic pilot died testing a company space plane. Safety regulators later said the pilot prematurely unlocked a tail section after the craft fired its rocket engine and as it was approaching the sound barrier, resulting in the craft being torn apart. Another pilot survived.
Virgin Galactic had reported 600 reservations for future flights backed by $80 million in deposits. It reported a loss of $273 million for last year and, compared with Blue Origin and SpaceX, has a business model that is more deeply tied to the emergence of a space-tourism sector.
Mr. Branson, 70 years old, is behind a business empire that includes airlines, cruise ships, hotels and gyms. Those ventures are trying to recover from the effects the Covid-19 pandemic had on travel and tourism. In recent years, Mr. Branson has made his space businesses, which include the satellite-launch company Virgin Orbit, his main focus.
At the Spaceport America facility, Virgin Galactic staged an extravaganza tied to the event, reaching people around the world via a live stream whose hosts included the late-night host Stephen Colbert. Some guests, wearing purple “Unity 22” T-shirts, milled in and out of a building for the event and near a stage set up outside. Around 500 guests were in attendance, including Mr. Musk and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a company spokeswoman said.
The Spaceport America facility, which was constructed using funds from New Mexico and local tax dollars, should help foster the state’s economy, Gov. Lujan Grisham said. “We’re on the map,” she said.
Kerrianne Flynn, a Virgin Galactic customer who attended the event, said she signed up in December 2011 for a space flight. She is unsure when she will eventually get to make the trip but added the wait has been worth it. She said: “There’s going to be nothing like going up there.”
Wall Street Journal