Billionaire Richard Branson Flying His Own Rocket to Space Today – Know All About His Indian Roots

San Francisco: Virgin Galactic is all set to launch its billionaire CEO Richard Branson and three company employees to the edge of space on Sunday (6.30 pm India time). If successful, the mission called ‘Unity 22’, will mark Virgin Galactic’s fourth flight to space carrying humans, with its largest crew yet.

Virgin Galactic’s twin-fuselage WhiteKnight carrier aircraft will carry a rocket-powered spaceship called VSS Unity, with Branson and others on board. Four people, including Branson, will test the astronaut cabin experience with two pilots in the cockpit.

Interestingly, Indian-origin Sirisha Bandla, vice president of government affairs at Virgin Galactic, is also part of VSS Unity – the crew that will take off from New Mexico.

Richard Branson and his Indian roots:

After a lifetime of yearning to fly in space, Richard Branson is finally blasting off aboard his own rocket ship Sunday in his boldest, grandest adventure yet. But did you know he also has Indian roots?

In December 2019, Sir Richard Branson revealed his ties to India at a press conference during the launch of Virgin Atlantic’s flight from Mumbai to London. Branson told reporters that a DNA test revealed how some of his ancestors were of Indian descent.

In an Instagram post, Branson said, “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,” Branson told reporters.

He added, “Every time I meet an Indian, I say we might be relatives.”

Richard Branson preponed mission after Jeff Bezos announced his flight to space:

The London-born founder of the Virgin Group, who turns 71 in a week, wasn’t supposed to fly until later this summer. But he assigned himself to an earlier flight after Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos announced plans to ride his own rocket into space from West Texas on July 20.

Virgin Galactic doesn’t expect to start flying customers before next year but it has already sold nearly 600 tickets, with each ticket costing nearly $250,000.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has yet to open ticket sales or even announce prices, but late last week boasted via Twitter that it would take clients higher and offer bigger windows.

Unlike Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which launch capsules atop reusable booster rockets, Virgin Galactic uses a twin-fuselage aircraft to get its rocket ship aloft.

The space plane is released from the mothership about 44,000 feet (13,400 meters) up, then fires its rocket motor to streak straight to space. Maximum altitude is roughly 55 miles (70 kilometers), with three to four minutes of weightlessness provided.

The rocket plane which requires two pilots glides to a runway landing at its Spaceport America base.

Virgin Galactic reached space for the first time in 2018, repeating the feat in 2019 and again this past May, each time with a minimal crew. It received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration last month to start launching customers.

(With inputs from agencies)