Flamboyant British entrepreneur Richard Branson is set to fly to space on a Sunday test flight by his Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, beating fellow aspiring billionaire astronaut and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos by about a week.
But did you know that Branson has a surprising Indian connection? It has come to light that the space enthusiast shares a bit of heritage with India.
Branson's Indian connection
Two years ago in 2019, Branson had revealed his ties with India at a press conference in Mumbai. He was in the city for the launch of his airline Virgin Atlantic's flight from Mumbai to London when he revealed that some of his ancestors were of Indian descent.
The British business tycoon had said that a part of his ancestral origins lies in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore, dating back to 1793. He had also unveiled Virgin Atlantic's newest flying icon, named after his great, great, great grandmother.
Branson had even said in a social media post, "Great to be in India to celebrate @virginatlantic's new route to Mumbai and join #AnandMahindra for our Business Is An Adventure event. We also unveiled our newest flying icon, named Aria, after my great great great grandfather's wife who was Indian."
"I knew that I had past generations living in India, but hadn't realised how strong our connections were. So, it turned out that from 1793, we had four generations living here in Cuddalore and one of my great, great, great grandmothers was an Indian named Aria who was married to one of my great, great, great grandfathers," he had told reporters.
"Every time I meet an Indian, I say we might be relatives," the 70-year-old had added.
VSS Unity rocket plane
The launch of Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity rocket plane over the New Mexico desert will mark the space tourism company's first test mission beyond Earth's atmosphere to carry a full complement of space travelers.
The VSS Unity has a six-member crew that will take off from New Mexico on July 11. One of the crew members of VSS Unity is Sirisha Bandla, a 34-year-old Indian-origin aeronautical engineer.
Bandla is set to become the third Indian-origin woman to head to space when she flies as part of Virgin Galactic's first fully crewed flight test on Sunday.