11 July 2021 16: 47: 46 IST

Virgin Galactic will become the first rocket company to launch the boss when Richard Branson attaches himself to one of his elegant and brilliant space planes today, on 11 July at 06: 00 PT or 18: 30 IST.

Finally, the British hopes to take off the nascent space tourism industry-but also surpass Jeff Bezos by winning the race to be the first person to cross the last border in a ship built by his own company. Bezos is scheduled to take off on July 20 from western Texas.

The self-described adventurer and troublemaker will join five company employees on Sunday's test flight from the Southern New Mexico Desert-the company's fourth trip to the edge of space.

Virgin Galactic will broadcast the launch on its website as well as on its YouTube channel from 6: 30 p.m. Indian time

"the sky above the American space port is ready. Soon, our specialists from the Unity22 mission will fly over New Mexico and see the Earth from a spectacular new perspective," tweeted Virgin Galactic.

Meanwhile, as you prepare to look at the first steps towards space tourism, here is a reminder about Branson's route and company:

Skipper on board

His wife, children and grandchildren will be there as he boards the rocket plane attached to a double fuselage aircraft for takeoff.

During the three to four minutes of weightlessness, "I will look at our beautiful Earth and understand everything and realize that only 500 other people have done this. "

Closer to 600, actually, but still a relatively small number. On landing, he will celebrate with "a big, big smile on my face".

Who else steals?

Two pilots are required to fly the rocket aircraft from the moment it is released from the mothership to fire into space until it slides towards a runway. This will be the third space trip for Chief pilot David Mackay, a Scottish test pilot for the Royal Air Force who later flew to Branson's Virgin Atlantic, and the second for Chief flight Instructor Michael Masucci. Chief Astronaut Instructor Beth Moses, a former NASA engineer, is also launching for the second time. Chief Operations Engineer Colin Bennett and Vice President Sirisha Bandla joined Branson as space recruits. The six will be taken over by CJ mothership pilots Sturckow, a former NASA astronaut, and Kelly Latimer.

Rocket aircraft

Balance sheet

And then what?

With contributions from the agencies

.

45seconds is a new medium, feel free to share our article on social media in order to give us a solid boost. ·