Richard Branson’s quest: to boldly go where no billionaire has gone before

Successful flight on Virgin Galactic craft would mark the next phase of space tourism race with Jeff Bezos

It does not often rain in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Nevertheless, Sir Richard Branson is likely to feel nervous as he checks the weather forecast on Sunday morning: if there are blue skies ahead then the British entrepreneur is likely to become the richest person ever to venture into space.

Branson and his team - two pilots and three other mission specialists" - will strap into the spacecraft, the VSS Unity. If all goes well Branson and co will be propelled 50 miles above the Earth's surface, the point considered by Nasa, the US space agency, to mark the end of the Earth's atmosphere.