Space Race: Richard Branson Achieves Space Dream; Know What Jeff Bezos Told British Billionaire And What Elon Musk Aspires

Earlier, Branson had shown disinterest in becoming part of "space race", soon after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made his plans public of a similar trip on July 20 through his space company, Blue Origin.

Image: Richard Branson (@richardbranson/Twitter)

New Delhi: It was a historic day for British billionaire Richard Branson, who achieved his childhood dream at the age of 70, by venturing into space on Sunday by boarding Virgin Galactic vessel. The British billionaire described his voyage as the "experience of a lifetime" -- and one he hopes will usher in an era of lucrative space tourism, according to news agency AP.

He took the flight on his own company Virgin Galactic's first fully crewed test flight aboard a passenger rocket plane namely the VSS Unity. The feat has taken him a step ahead of his rivals Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk who are equally upbeat about the adventure.

In what has been dubbed as the "billionaire space race", Jeff Bezos, the founder of e-commerce firm Amazon, remain unaffected with his rival and wished him best. Taking to Instagram, Bezos wished Branson and the whole team a "successful and safe flight".

"Best of luck!" Bezos said.

Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and SpaceX founder Elon Musk are already known for their penchant in space and commercial flights.

Earlier Branson had said he was not interested in becoming part of the "space race", soon after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made his plans public of a similar trip on July 20 through his own space company, Blue Origin.

Later he decided to launch himself into space nine days before Bezos who had intended to take the flight too. "Congratulations to all our wonderful team at Virgin Galactic for 17 years of hard, hard work to get us this far," he said during a live feed as the VSS Unity spaceship glided back to Spaceport America in New Mexico.

The spaceship reached a peak altitude of around 53 miles (85 kilometers) -- beyond the boundary of space, according to the United States -- allowing the passengers to experience weightlessness and admire the Earth's curvature.The team touchdown at around 9:40 am Mountain Time (1540 GMT), after almost an hour it took off.

The mission's success means Branson has beaten fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos in the race to be the first tycoon to cross the final frontier in a ship built by a company he founded.

Meanwhile, the Tesla CEO, who owns his own space company, SpaceX, also already bought his own ticket with Richard Branson‘s Virgin Galactic.

In a Wall Street Journal report, a spokesman for Virgin Galactic has confirmed that Musk had bought a ticket for his own space ride. It is unclear how far up the waiting list Musk is for a seat. Virgin Galactic has reported that its tickets have sold for $250,000 each, and the company has collected $80 million in sales and deposits.