A Virgin Galactic spaceship carrying Richard Branson touched down Sunday after a voyage the British billionaire called an “experience of a lifetime."
“Congratulations to all our wonderful team at Virgin Galactic for 17 years of hard hard work to get us this far," he said during a live feed as the VSS Unity spaceship glided back to Spaceport America in New Mexico.
It reached a peak altitude of around 53 miles (85 kilometers), beyond the boundary of space according to the United States, allowing the passengers to experience weightlessness and admire the Earth’s curvature.
Touch down occurred around 09:40 am Mountain Time (1540 GMT), about an hour after take-off.
Branson, on spaceship, called the trip ‘experience of a lifetime’.
Richard Branson called his flight to space “the experience of a lifetime” in a radio transmission from the VSS Unity rocketplane as it glides back to landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico.Watch live: https://t.co/h22JtU0mM4 pic.twitter.com/NjmIbGNB4N
— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) July 11, 2021
“Congratulations to all our wonderful team at Virgin Galactic for 17 years of hard, hard work to get us this far," he said during a live feed as the VSS Unity spaceship glided back to Spaceport America in New Mexico.
The trip proceeded without drama, and touchdown occurred at around 9:40 am Mountain Time (1540 GMT), about an hour after take-off.
The mission’s success means Branson has beaten fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos in the race to be the first tycoon to cross the final frontier in a ship built by a company he founded.
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