Richard Branson aims to beat Jeff Bezos into space by nine days
by Mark Sweney and agencies from Science | The Guardian on (#5KSCJ)
Virgin Galactic founder has announced he will take off on board the next test flight on 11 July
Richard Branson is aiming to beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos into space by nine days.
Branson's Virgin Galactic company announced on Thursday that its next test flight would take place on 11 July and that its founder would be among the six people on board. All other passengers will be company employees. It will be only the fourth trip to space for Virgin Galactic.
The winged rocket ship - the first carrying a full crew - will launch from New Mexico after the US Federal Aviation Administration in late June gave Virgin Galactic permission to take paying customers into space after a successful test flight in May.
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