Elon Musk will fly to space with Virgin Galactic, reports
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has sucked the oxygen out of the news cycle in the last 24 hours with news coverage ranging from space flight to a court appearance. Over the weekend, Musk was with Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, to witness Branson’s flight to the edge of space aboard a Virgin Galactic vehicle that took off from New Mexico on Sunday.
Earlier Today, Musk also attended a trial to defend Tesla’s $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity after Shareholders filed a lawsuit against him. We cover the story here.
This evening, Space.com reported that Musk will fly to space with Virgin Galactic. Citing multiple reports, Space.com said Musk has already made a $10,000 downpayment. The announcement comes less than 24 hours after the 70-year-old Branson made a similar trip on Sunday, flying on the first fully crewed spaceflight of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity spaceplane.
Mr. Branson told the British newspaper The Sunday Times that Musk has made a $10,000 deposit to reserve a seat on a future suborbital flight. He also said that “Elon’s a friend, and maybe I’ll travel on one of his ships one day.” A Virgin Galactic spokesperson also confirmed the news to The Wall Street Journal.
Virgin Galactic told the Journal that its tickets have sold for $250,000 each, and the company has collected $80 million in sales and deposits. However, it is unclear how far up the waiting list Musk is for a seat, the Journal said.
Meanwhile, hours before his Sunday’s early-morning flight, Branson tweeted out a picture of himself standing next to a shoeless Musk saying: “Big day ahead. Great to start the morning with a friend. Feeling good, feeling excited, feeling ready.”
Big day ahead. Great to start the morning with a friend. Feeling good, feeling excited, feeling ready.
Watch #Unity22 launch and livestream TODAY at 7:30 am PT | 10:30 am ET | 3:30 pm BST.@virgingalactic @elonmusk https://t.co/1313b4RAKI pic.twitter.com/FRQqrQEbH8
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 11, 2021