On July 12 Richard Branson will be taking a Virgin Galactic flight into space. Here’s how you can watch it happen live.
Recently we have seen a modern day space race unfold, but between billionaires. Former Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, recently announced that he would be flying to the edge of space on a Blue Origin rock on July 20. This coincides with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Hilariously, Richard Branson then announced the Virgin Galactic test flight beyond the Earth’s atmosphere on July 11, beating Bezos by mere days.
Branson will join the wider Unity 22 crew for a flight sub-orbital flight that will last around 90-minutes.
According to space.com, the crew will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico on Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo vehicle. It will be attached beneasth the wings of a carrier aircraft – VMS Eve.
One they reach 50,000 feet, Unity will be dropped to continue onto suborbital space. The Unity will sit at the peak of its path for roughly four minutes.
Based on past Unity flights, Sunday’s mission will last about 90 minutes in total, and the “weightless” phase — when the ship reaches the top of its suborbital path — will last about four minutes.
Both the Unit and Eve will land back at Spaceport America.
How to watch Richard Branson go to space
The live stream of the flight will begin at 11pm AEST on Sunday July 11. Across Australia that will be 10:30pm ACST and 9pm AWST.
Virgin Galactic is streaming the flight on YouTube, which you can watch right here:
Is he actually going to space, though?
That kinda depend on the definition.
Historically, SpaceShipTwo flights have been below the Kármán line, which is the 100km altitude mark that is recognised by some as the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and space.
However, the VSS Unity has already taken several crews about the boundary recognised by NASA, which sits at 80km.