Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson flew into space

11 July aerospace company Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) successfully completed the next tests. Test flight was the first, when there were passengers in the cockpit of the ship, not counting 2 pilots. The flight record can be viewed on the company's Internet office..

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Branson, or back and forth

On Sunday, the carrier aircraft VMS Eve took off from one of the runways of the Space Center America in New Mexico and climbed to an altitude of 12 km. There, the plane released the manned spacecraft VSS Unity with passengers on board. Unity launched its own rocket engine, accelerated to a speed of 3000 km / h and reached a height of 86 km. After the ship landed smoothly at the space center America.

One of 4 passengers became the founder of Virgin Galactic Richard Branson. Here's what he said: "I've been dreaming about this moment since I was young. We are at the forefront of the new space age. For me, as the founder of Virgin, honored to have this client experience as part of a team of professionals. I can't wait to share this experience with aspiring astronauts around the world.".

“Our mission is to make space easily accessible to everyone.. I'm happy to announce my collaboration with Omaze and Space for Humanity, to inspire the next generation of dreamers. We looked for a long time and with surprise at yesterday's space pioneers.. Now I wish, so that tomorrow's astronauts look ahead and make their dreams come true", - also said Branson.

Omaze is a fundraising platform for charitable activities. Anyone can donate funds and win rewards: dinner with a star, movie premiere tickets, machine, travel and other. Now Omaze has a new prize: two tickets to space. The program includes: hotel accommodation, space center tour, preparation and flight.

Space for Humanity is an American non-profit organization. The main mission of the organization is “to change the world, changing the point of view of ordinary people ". Space for Humanity wants to make space travel accessible to everyone, therefore, as astronauts, he chooses people of different origins and different nationalities.

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Faster, but not higher and not stronger

Initially, Richard Branson planned to go into space not in the first, and in the second flight with the participation of passengers. Later, the founder of the company changed his mind and decided to fly earlier: so Branson beat Jeff Bezos, founder Amazon and another space company - Blue Origin.

Bezos did not like this arrangement.. 9 July, two days before flight, Blue Origin tweeted infographic, where she compared her New Shepard to Virgin Galactic's Unity. The company told, that Unity has a greater impact on the environment, has smaller windows and is not equipped with an evacuation system.

Blue Origin considers flight altitude its main advantage. All Virgin Galactic tests were below 100 km, i.e. below the Karman line, which is considered to be the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space. According to Blue Origin, Virgin hasn't been in space at all: "Only 4% people in the world recognize, that space begins at an altitude of 80 km".

Blue Origin's first passenger flight is scheduled for 20 July. One of the four passengers could be Bezos and his brother.

Securities

At the beginning of the month, the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange reported, that Virgin Galactic shares became the most popular among Russian investors. Virgin had 24,3% of the total trading volume in June. The second and third places were taken by Tesla and TAL Education - 5,3 And 3,6%.

During the year, Virgin Galactic often delayed the next test date.. Due to the transfers, the company's shares at some point fell by 77%, with 63 $ in February to 14 $ in May. Later, after various positive news, Virgin securities rose to 49 $. Excluding trading on the premarket, the company's shares added 112% year to date. While Virgin Galactic is not making any money, but the company promises to launch commercial spaceflight in 2022.