{"id":3047,"date":"2018-10-09T09:35:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T09:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/virgin-galactic-to-reach-space-in-weeks-not-months\/"},"modified":"2018-10-09T09:35:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T09:35:53","slug":"virgin-galactic-to-reach-space-in-weeks-not-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/virgin-galactic-to-reach-space-in-weeks-not-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic to reach space in &#8216;weeks not months&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"Richard Branson\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/14A61\/production\/_103777548_gettyimages-455943364.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Rob Kim<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has said that Virgin Galactic is &#8220;weeks&#8221; away from its first trip into space.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We should be in space within weeks, not months. And then we will be in space with myself in months and not years,&#8221; the firm&#8217;s founder and chief executive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/10\/09\/richard-branson-space-virgin-galactic-weeks-not-months.html?_source=twitter&amp;__source=twitter%7Cmain\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">told news website CNBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He said the firm would be taking people into space &#8220;not too long after&#8221; that. <\/p>\n<p>Sir Richard is in a race with Elon Musk&#8217;s SpaceX and Amazon to send the first fee-paying passengers into space.<\/p>\n<p>He founded the commercial spaceflight company in 2004.<\/p>\n<p>The company first promised sub-orbital spaceflight trips for tourists by the start in 2009.<\/p>\n<p>But delays and a fatal crash in 2014 prevented Branson&#8217;s original ambitions.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Virgin Galactic completed a supersonic test flight of its SpaceShipTwo passenger rocket ship, its first since the crash.<\/p>\n<p>The 67-year-old multi-millionaire was initially expected to take part in a space flight before April this year.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/b0b42pdb\" class=\"story-body__link\">BBC Radio 4&#8217;s You and Yours programme<\/a>, Branson said he was receiving astronaut, centrifuge and fitness training. <\/p>\n<p>&#8216;If I have a room full of 10 people, eight out of 10 would love to go to space if they could afford it,&#8217; Branson told CNBC.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It is up to us to produce as many spaceships as we can to cater with that demand.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>His announcement comes shortly after rival SpaceX unveiled the first private passenger it plans to fly around the Moon.<\/p>\n<p>The mission is planned for 2023, and would be the first lunar journey by humans since 1972.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has said his space travel firm Blue Origin will launch a manned mission into space by 2019. Bezos didn&#8217;t clarify if he meant crew or fare-paying passengers.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Blue Origin also announced that it is launching a non-profit group with Airbus, the European Space Agency, Agencia Espacial Mexicana, and French construction company Vinci Construction to explore ways to colonise the moon.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-45796403\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Rob Kim Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has said that Virgin Galactic is &#8220;weeks&#8221; away from its first trip into space. &#8220;We should be in space within weeks, not months. And then we will be in space with myself in months and not years,&#8221; the firm&#8217;s founder and chief executive told news website CNBC. &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}