Virgin’s Richard Branson announces plan to beat Jeff Bezos to space

Washington: British billionaire Richard Branson plans to travel to space as early as July 11 aboard a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, his company said in a statement.

If the schedule holds, Branson would make it to the cosmos before rival billionaire Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who said he would travel to space aboard a spacecraft belonging to his company Blue Origin on July 20.

“The flight window for the next rocket-powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity opens July 11, pending weather and technical checks,” Virgin Galactic said in a statement.