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Richard Branson became the first person to launch into space in a spacecraft built and developed by his own company.Summary
Launched from Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport America, the Virgin Mothership ’Eve’ carried the space plane ‘Unity” to an altitude of 50,000 feet and then drop launched Unity. Unity’s rocket hybrid motor then boosted the plane into suborbital flight, 50 miles above Earth.
The six astronauts aboard Unity 22 (named for the plane’s 22nd mission) were:
Pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci.
Sirisha Bandla, Virgin Galactic’s VP of Government Affairs and Research Operations.
Colin Bennett, the Lead Operations Engineer at Virgin.
Beth Moses, the Chief Astronaut at Virgin.
Sir Richard Branson, Founder of the Virgin Group.
Branson signed the Virgin Galactic registry as Astronaut 001, Beth Moses as Astronaut 002. Virgin Galactic has already taken bookings from civilians for future flights into space, each seat costing $250,000.
References
Jul 2021 Space.com Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity 22 launch with Richard Branson. See video and photos of the flight.
Jul 2021 The Washington Post EXPLAINER: How Richard Branson will ride own rocket to space
Jul2021 Forbes Live: Inside Richard Branson’s Journey To Outer Space