INTERNATIONAL: British billionaire, Mr. Richard Branson, has become the world’s first person to ride into space aboard a spaceship his own company built. “Virgin Galactic One” roared into low-earth orbit above New Mexico on Sunday night, carrying Branson and three fellow passengers.
As the British billionaire floated around in microgravity, he sent a taped message: "To all you kids out there — I was once a child with a dream, looking up at the stars. Now I'm an adult in a spaceship...If we can do this, just imagine what you can do."
Branson's flight came just nine days before Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos heads into orbit aboard his own company’s spacecraft. These are landmark moments for commercial space travel and have received praise and congratulations on Twitter from Elon Musk.
Virgin Galactic plans to conduct just one more test flight before it begins flying paying customers. More than 600 people have already bought tickets. If you want one, you’re going to have to dig very deep into your pockets. The first tickets were sold for between $200,000 and $250,000. The next batch of tickets are expected to be even more expensive.
