On Sunday 11 July 2021, Sir Richard Branson (Cobham/Lyttelton 68), took off on a 1.5-hour mission into space in his Virgin Galactic rocket plane, Unity, making him the first of the new space pioneers to experience zero gravity and reach the edge of space. This extraordinary achievement was seventeen years in the making and has been one of the most challenging ventures in his career. Over the next year, Branson is looking to open up the offer and launch space tourism to the masses – 600 people have already paid deposits for the $250,000 flight. With Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos also travelling to the edge of space, this could really make a huge change to how people think about space travel.
Whilst in space, Branson sent the following message:
To all you kids down there, I was once a child with a dream, looking up to the stars. Now I’m an adult in a spaceship with lots of other wonderful adults, looking down to our beautiful, beautiful Earth. To our next generation of dreamers, if we can do this, just imagine what you can do.
Inspirational words to all those who have a seemingly impossible dream.