Richard Branson’s rocket-powered trip to the edge of space on Sunday will mark a return to the daredevil exploits that first established the billionaire’s swashbuckling reputation.
For decades, Branson engaged in a series of record-breaking stunts in which he kite-surfed for 30 miles (48 kilometers) between England and France, crossed the Atlantic Ocean by speedboat in just three days and then spanned the Pacific in a hot-air balloon at speeds of as much as 245 miles per hour.
While the high-octane escapades propelled Branson to near rock-star status and attracted huge publicity for his Virgin Group companies, they also saw the Briton rescued by emergency services on multiple occasions. That prompted him to dial down the risk taking to comparatively sedate activities such as bungee jumping, yacht racing and a 2,000-kilometer triathlon.
But the race to establish the world’s first space-tourism venture has revived the aging entrepreneur’s buccaneering spirit. After the announcement last month that Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos would ride on rocket made by his Blue Origin company on July 20, Branson declared that he’d be aboard a Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. test flight nine days earlier—a week before he turns 71.
Will Whitehorn, a former president of Virgin Galactic who helped establish the company, said the move is typical of Branson, whose mantra of “Screw It, Let’s Do It” and a propensity to approve even the most challenging projects led staff to nickname him “Dr. Yes.”
“Richard is not a fearful person, but he’s also a thoughtful person,” Whitehorn, now president of the UKspace trade association, said in an interview. “He would not be going if he did not believe that this was safe. And if he manages to beat Jeff Bezos, good luck to him.”
The decision to fly followed approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for Virgin Galactic to carry fee-paying passengers.
“You can’t expect scientists and space tourists to go if the boss is not prepared to,” Whitehorn said.
Deadly Crash
Branson will journey in Virgin’s VSS Unity spaceplane, itself carried aloft by a so-called mothership aircraft, in a trip that’s expected to take about 90 minutes from takeoff to landing. After being released from the carrier plane, the Unity will ignite a rocket engine to propel it to a height of 55 miles above Earth.
That’s beyond the boundary recognized by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration as the edge of space, although short of the Karman Line, an internationally recognized space frontier at 62 miles from the planet.
The same Virgin Galactic spacecraft model suffered a crash that killed a test pilot in 2014, when a descent mechanism was triggered with the rocket still climbing. The company did an extensive design modification to prevent that from happening again.
Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said earlier this month that the company is ready for Branson’s trip after a successful test flight in May.
Branson, who was knighted in 1999 by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to entrepreneurship,” has a net worth of about $7.5 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. More than 40 Virgin-brand businesses collect annual revenue of about $22 billion through partnerships, affiliations and direct holdings, a spokeswoman said in December. As with Virgin Galactic, he has typically left day-to-day management to hired executives.