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Elon Musk visited fellow billionaire space baron Richard Branson at his home on the morning of Branson’s historic flight to the edge of the cosmos.
The Virgin Group mogul flew about 55 miles high – just skimming the edge of space – aboard a SpaceShipTwo rocket plane on Sunday morning. It was Virgin Galactic’s first flight with a full crew, and it has positioned the company to carry its first paying tourists to space edge next year.
Sirisha Bandla sits on Richard Branson’s shoulders, alongside Beth Moses and Colin Bennett, in celebration of their space flight on July 11, 2021.
Joe Skipper / Reuters
Ultimately, Branson said, the company’s goal is to make spaceflight accessible to everyone.
Musk founded the rocket company SpaceX with a different goal: to reach and populate Mars. But he still showed his support for Branson’s cause. Two hours before take off, Branson shared a photo on Twitter of himself in the kitchen with a barefoot Musk.
“Great to start the morning with a friend,” he wrote.
The founder of SpaceX visited the Virgin Galactic launch facilities in New Mexico to witness the flight. It was later photography with the CEO of Virgin Orbit, Branson’s other spaceflight company.
In a press conference after the flight, Branson clarified that it was quite early in the morning: 3 a.m.
“It was great this morning to meet Elon Musk in my kitchen at three o’clock, to come and wish us the best,” he said.
“I had been to bed before and he still hadn’t gone to bed,” Branson added with a laugh. “It’s a sleepless night and our clocks are completely different. But it’s so kind of him that he has come all this way to wish us luck.”
Hours later, Branson took off, carried by two pilots and accompanied by three other Virgin Galactic employees as passengers. Along with Branson, these “mission specialists” were Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor; Colin Bennett, its chief operating engineer; and Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs and research.
VSS Unity fires its engines to fly to the edge of space on July 11, 2021.
Galactic Virgo
A twin-body “mother” plane transported their spacecraft nearly 10 miles above sea level and then dropped it into the air. The pilots immediately fired the SpaceShipTwo engines, pointed up and screamed into space, climbing another 45 miles in just two minutes.
Branson and his teammates spent about five minutes floating around the cabin of the spacecraft and gazing at the Earth below before gravity began to pull them back down. The spacecraft fell back into Earth’s atmosphere, then extended its wings to glide until it landed on the runway.
“. Musk tweeted shortly after landing.
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