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Virgin Galactic to Fly to Space by Christmas

There seems to be no stopping Virgin Galactic leader and billionaire Richard Branson when it comes to making bold claims.
Virgin Galactic VSS Unity 1 photo
Photo: Virgin Galactic
After back in October the Brit claimed in an interview with CNBC he will be sending himself to space within months, he now upped the ante by telling CNN the first trip of his spaceship beyond the atmosphere, with astronauts on board, should happen by the end of the year.

This first trip will be taken by the pilots of the VSS Unity alone, with no tourists or Branson around, as they will have to break “it in a few times.” Branson says it is his pilots that don’t allow him on board because these first trips beyond the atmosphere will be dangerous.

After all proves in working order, Branson will become the first true tourist into space. He will be followed by paying customers soon after that.

We have to remind you that you should take all this Branson rhetoric with a grain of salt, as the man has said things like this before and the reality proved him wrong.

The ship at the center of all this launches horizontally at 50,000 feet (15 km) from the underbelly of its carrier plane, VMS Eve. The ship has a capacity of six passengers and two crew and comes as a bullet-shaped cylinder measuring 60 feet in length (18 meters).

As per Branson, during this first space flight the ship will be traveling at 2,300 miles per hour, a speed which will be reached in just eight seconds after it detaches from the plane.

Until now, the VSS Unity has only conducted atmospheric tests, with it last flight taking the craft to 170,800 feet above sea level and at 2.47 times the speed of sound.

Virgin Galactic is the only private space company to have lost people during the development process for its spacecraft. In 2014, the first ship, VSS Enterprise, crashed as a result of pilot error, killing one.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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