Leaving on a jet plane: Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson gears up for a trip to space
Earlier this year, Virgin Galactic his space tourism company completed a supersonic test flight
(Web Desk) – British entrepreneur, multi-millionaire and founder of the Virgin group, Sir Richard Branson is gearing up to take his first trip into space.
The BBC has reported that the 67-year-old business magnate has been investing in commercial space travel since 2004 in a bid to get fare-paying passengers into space.
“We’re talking about months away, not years away – so it’s close. There are exciting times ahead,” he said to BBC Radio 4 in an interview.
Earlier this year, Virgin Galactic – his space tourism company – completed a supersonic test flight of its SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship.
It was the first powered flight for the company’s new vehicle following the 2014 break-up of the previous craft over the Californian desert that resulted in the death of one pilot and left the other seriously injured.
Sir Richard Branson, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are reported to be in a race to get passengers into space but as far as commercial space travel is concerned, Branson thinks the real competition is between him and Bezos.
“Elon is doing fantastically well getting cargo into space, and he’s building bigger and bigger rockets.”
“Ultimately, we have to do it safely. It’s more a race with ourselves to make sure we have the craft that are safe to put people up there.”
And Branson plans to be one of those first space tourists.
“I’m going for astronaut training; I’m going for fitness training, centrifuge and other training, so that my body will hopefully cope well when I go to space,” he told the BBC.
The centrifuge training recreates the pressures the human body experiences during spaceflight. Astronauts endure G-force training, which simulates the experience of lift-off and travel through the Earth’s atmosphere.
He also said he has increased his fitness by playing tennis four times a day.
“Instead of doing one set of tennis every morning and every evening, I’m doing two sets - doing whatever it takes to make me as fit as possible.”
“If you’re going to really enjoy the experience, the fitter you can be the better.”
