Not Competition But Praying For Each Other, Richard Branson On The Race With Jeff Bezos

JAKARTA - Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson has moved his scheduled trip into space later on July 11, ahead of a test flight conducted by rival Jeff Bezos, July 20. The announcement seemed to confirm the existence of competition among the world's conglomerates.

But Branson denied this and claimed there was no competition. "We both wish each other the best," Branson was quoted as saying by dailaymail.co.uk.

Branson is scheduled to join five others on a test flight into space on July 11, one week before his 71st birthday, and nine days before Bezos boarded Blue Origin.

He will launch on the next three test flights that will be operational this year, before commercial operations begin in 2022 from Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos will launch his New Shepherd rocket to the edge of space on July 20, marking the 52nd anniversary of the first human landing on the moon.

The British billionaire has denied that he and Bezos are in a race to see who gets into space first.

"I just wish him and the people who ride with him the best," he said. Even Branson hopes they can talk about his travel experiences when he returns.

Branson said he and his company have spent 17 years trying to get to this point, something that "means a lot to him," with commercial operations starting in 2022.

This will be VSS Unity's fourth flight and only the second to include passengers in the cabin. For the first time happened when Beth Moses boarded in February 2019.

It will be the first of the last three flights required to test all aspects of the cabin and passenger experience. Branson looked 'very excited' when the final safety check was carried out.

The British billionaire said his wife might be nervous about the launch, but she wasn't the least bit scared herself. "I've been looking forward to this for 17 years," said Branson of Spaceport America near the remote town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

He said pre-flight preparations only added to the excitement ahead of Sunday's scheduled launch, which will take place one week before his 71st birthday. "Every part about it was a moment that stuck with me," he added.

The launch of the Virgin Galactic VSS Unity rocket over the desert will mark the space tourism company's fourth crewed test mission beyond Earth's atmosphere. But it will be the first to carry a full-fledged space passenger, consisting of Branson, two pilots, and three mission specialists.

Branson has been named Astronaut 001 for the first full cabin flight along with a number of top Virgin Galactic employees. He will be traveling with Virgin Galactic Chief Astronaut Beth Moses, Principal Operations Engineer Colin Bennett, and Vice President of Government Affairs Sirisha Bandla.

They will fly with pilot David Mackay, Michael Masucci in front of the VSS Unity spacecraft. The flight is dubbed Unity 22, as it is the 22nd total test flight for Virgin Galactic.

Unity will be launched at an altitude of about 50,000 feet from a Virgin Galactic carrier plane known as VMS Eve, then fly with the power of its own rocket to the limits of space - more than 50 miles above Earth's surface.

At this point, the crew will experience about four minutes of weightlessness before starting to descend back to Earth.

This journey is not without danger. An earlier prototype of this rocket plane had crashed during a 2014 test flight over California's Mojave Desert, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.