British billionaire Richard Branson successfully flew to the edge of space aboard a Virgin Galactic flight from New Mexico recently. Branson’s journey to space was days ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos‘ trip to outer space which is to happen today. Branson flew with pilots David Mackay and Michael Masucci, Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor, Virgin Galactic’s lead operations engineer, Colin Bennett, and Sirisha Bandla, a research operations and government affairs vice-president.
The moment Branson and his fellow passengers reached the invisible boundary of space, he has captured a video of Earth. He was so thrilled and later shared the video on Twitter with the caption “The moment we saw Earth from space…”
Here is the video:
The moment we saw Earth from space…@virgingalactic #Unity22 pic.twitter.com/LTHSKqABAj
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 19, 2021
Twitter users were definitely in love with the spectacular view of earth. Check out a few reactions:
This is one small step for man, one huge step for mankind all over again.
— Akikur (@Akikur20) July 19, 2021
Bryson I can’t go to space I don’t even like getting on a ladder There’s no way I can go to space leave it for someone else who loves it thank you anyway
— Alice Stewart (@AliceSt55452647) July 19, 2021
Congrats to Virgin Galactic and Sir Richard on successfully completing their project as well as with their successful launch and orbit of Virgin Galactica first reusable rocket…
— Yum Num (@YumNumCompany) July 19, 2021
Congratulations on the achievement! The view is looking fabulous. I have noticed that it was very difficult for you to hold on to the window and keep the balance, maybe you will consider some handlebars for the next flight 🙂
— Angel Angelov (@AngelAngelov89) July 19, 2021
However, some thought the money could’ve been better spent to eradicate poverty, devastation and other crisis around us.
With the same money you could have bought 10 million acres of Amazon rain Forest to protect it from devastation
— British People 🇪🇺 #FBPE (@BritsPeople) July 19, 2021
Or you could have put 5000 children through school getting the most incredible education over a 12 year period thus creating the change makers of tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed your 15 min Star Trek moment!
— Julian Saunders (@JulianWSaunders) July 20, 2021
There were several criticisms about Richard about his journey to space, recently a famous astrophysicist and celebrity science communicator Neil DeGrasse Tyson has said that Branson did not actually travel to space. In an interview to CNN, when the host asked if it is space travel, Tyson said, “No. I am sorry,” and then he laughed. Tyson further explained that Branson’s travel was actually suborbital and the feat was achieved by NASA about 60 years ago.
On the other hand, Jeff Bezos and 3 Blue Origin crew members are all set to jet off into space on Tuesday. Bezos is being accompanied by his brother Mark, 82-year-old aviation pioneer Wally Funk and teenager Oliver Daemen. Bezos’s capsule is entirely automated. Bezos and his crew members took time out to appear on CBS Morning Show and while announcing they all were very excited to be going to space, Bezos also told his fellow crew members to just “sit back, relax, look out of the window, just absorb the view outside.”
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