Branson kicks off billionaire space race with successful flight

British billionaire Richard Branson on Sunday became the first so-called "space baron" to successfully spend some time, however brief, away from Earth.
The Virgin Group founder, along with three others, took off from New Mexico on board the spacecraft Unity, which was initially attached to the Virgin Galactic aircraft VMS Eve. After reaching 50,000 feet, Eve launched Unity to the edge of space, allowing Branson and his fellow travelers a moment to experience weightlessness and check out the curvature of their home planet before they descended to Earth and landed safely. On the way back, Branson said it was the "experience of a lifetime."
Scientifically speaking, Branson's journey wasn't groundbreaking — some critics argued the trip was really an advance in long-distance "plane flight" rather than a space venture, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson told CNN's Fareed Zakaria that he doesn't consider the expedition to fall under the category of space travel. Really, though, Branson's goal was to usher in an era of commercial space tourism, likely regardless of whether it contributes to a deeper scientific purpose.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Art Review: Hilma af Klint's What Stands Behind the Flowers
Feature Museum of Modern Art, New York City, through Sept. 27
-
Not just a number: how aging rates vary by country
The explainer Inequality is a key factor
-
'There will be a market incentive to build wind and solar anyway'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 years
Speed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
The treasure trove of platinum on the moon
Under the radar This kind of bounty could lead to commercial exploitation
-
Why Elon Musk's satellites are 'dropping like flies'
Under The Radar Fierce solar activity destroying Starlink satellites
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study finds
Speed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Why is Nasa facing a crisis?
Today's Big Question Trump administration proposes 25% cut to national space agency's budget in 'extinction-level event'
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves baby
speed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
-
Full moon calendar 2025: when is the next full moon?
In depth When to see the lunar phenomenon every month
-
Sea lion proves animals can keep a beat
speed read A sea lion named Ronan beat a group of college students in a rhythmic dance-off, says new study