RICHARD BRANSON, the British billionaire and founder of Virgin Group, has just added a new chapter in space travel. In what he expresses as the “experience of a lifetime,” Branson took off aboard the VSS Unity spaceship with five members of his crew and landed on Spaceport America in New Mexico on July 11. Branson’s space flight reached a peak altitude of around 53 miles (85 kilometers), which is above the boundary of space. When at this altitude, passengers aboard the spaceship can experience weightlessness in space. Plus, the spectacular Earth’s curvature can be witnessed at this altitude. The entire journey took about an hour after takeoff. The 71-year-old businessman has become the first billionaire to travel to space in his own spaceship, stealing the spotlight from the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, who had earlier announced his plan to travel to space July 20. After returning from the space trip, Branson described the experience as “magical.” Branson said he has dreamed of traveling to space since he was a child and he hopes to be able to help many people make the trip in future. “We’re here to make space more accessible to all. We want to turn the next generation of dreamers into the astronauts of today and tomorrow,” he said. “We’ve all us on this stage have had the most extraordinary experience, and we’d love it if a number of you can have it, too. If you ever had a dream, now is the time to make it come true. I’d like to end by saying welcome to the dawn of a new space age. “I’ve wanted to go to space since I was a kid, and I want to enable hopefully hundreds of thousands of other people over the next 100 years to be able to go to space. “And why shouldn’t they go to space? Space is extraordinary; the universe is magnificent. I want people to be able to look back at our beautiful earth and come home and work very hard to try to do magic to it to look after it.” Looking back, Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004 and has since then dreaming of traveling to space. However, the 2014 in-flight death of a pilot almost ended the program and delayed it significantly. Finally, in 2021, Branson succeeded in the space flight mission. Virgin Galactic, a Virgin Group subsidiary, has invested more than US$1 billion into a space tourism business over the past 17 years, which it hopes will have high demand among the world’s wealthiest people. The company has stated that up to 2 million people will travel to space in commercial flights and plans to begin its commercial service early next year. Branson struggled in school and dropped out at age 16 — a decision that ultimately led to the creation of Virgin Records. His entrepreneurial projects started in the music industry and expanded into other sectors, including the space-tourism venture Virgin Galactic, making him a billionaire. The self-made English billionaire is also known for his adventurous spirit and sporting achievements, including crossing oceans in a hot air balloon. Branson was born in Surrey, England, in 1950. His father, Edward James Branson, worked as a barrister. His mother, Eve Branson, was employed as a flight attendant. Branson, who struggled with dyslexia, had a hard time with educational institutions. He dropped out at the age of 16 to start a youth-culture magazine called Student. The publication, run by students, sold US$8,000 worth of advertising in its first edition, launched in 1966. The first run of 50,000 copies was disseminated for free, with Branson afterward covering the costs through advertising. By 1969, Branson was living in a London commune, surrounded by the British music and drug scene. It was during this time that Branson had the idea to begin a mail-order record company called Virgin to help fund his magazine efforts. The company performed modestly but well enough for Branson to expand his business venture, with a record shop on Oxford Street, London. With the success of the new store, the high school dropout was able to build a recording studio in 1972 in Oxfordshire, England. The first artist on the Virgin Records label, Mike Oldfield, recorded his single “Tubular Bells” in 1973 with the help of Branson’s team. The song was an instant smash, staying on the U.K. charts for 247 weeks. Using the momentum of Oldfield’s success, Branson then signed other aspiring musical groups to the label, including the Sex Pistols. Artists such as the Culture Club, the Rolling Stones and Genesis would follow, helping to make Virgin Music one of the top six record companies in the world. Branson expanded his entrepreneurial efforts yet again, this time to include the Voyager Group travel company in 1980, the Virgin Atlantic airline in 1984 and a series of Virgin Megastores. However, Branson’s success was not always predictable, and by 1992, Virgin Records was suddenly struggling to stay financially afloat. The company was sold later that year to Thorn EMI for US$1 billion. Branson was crushed by the loss, reportedly crying after the contract was signed, but remained determined to stay in the music business. In 1993, he founded the station Virgin Radio, and in 1996 he started a second record company, V2, which signed artists such as Powder Finger and Tom Jones. The Virgin Group eventually reached 35 countries around the world, with nearly 70,000 employees handling affairs in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, Asia, Europe, South Africa and beyond. He has expanded his businesses to include a train company, a luxury game preserve, a mobile phone company and a space tourism company, Virgin Galactic. Branson is also known for his sporting achievements, notably the record-breaking Atlantic crossing in Virgin Atlantic Challenger II in 1986, and the first crossing by hot air balloon of the Atlantic (1987) and Pacific (1991). He is the oldest person to kite surf across the English Channel. He was knighted in 1999 for his contribution to entrepreneurship, and in 2009, he landed at No. 261 on Forbes’ World Billionaires list with his US$2.5 billion in self-made fortune, including two private islands. In recent years, the ever-adventurous Branson has focused much of his attention on his space tourism venture. He partnered with Scaled Composites to form The Spaceship Company, which set to work developing a suborbital spaceplane. In April 2013, the project made an impressive leap forward with the test launch of SpaceShipTwo. In 2015, Branson announced the launch of Virgin Voyages, a new cruise line. Additionally, the mogul moved forward with his upstart Virgin Hotels, founded in 2010. In 2018, Virgin announced its presence in Las Vegas by taking over ownership of the Hard Rock Hotel. To date, Branson’s net worth hovers around US$6 billion, according to Forbes estimates. Branson’s interest in space also started early. He was just 19 when Apollo 11 touched down on the moon. According to Virgin Galactic’s website, Branson watched the landings on television along with his family. He “determined that he too will one day experience the wonder of space,” Virgin Galactic wrote. The first rocket-powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo took place in April 2013 and another followed in September 2013, then another in January 2014. Each flight went well, with Enterprise zooming high in the sky faster than the speed of sound. But tragedy struck during the fourth rocket-powered flight Oct. 31, 2014, when the vehicle broke apart. The incident killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury and injured pilot Peter Siebold. A blog post from Branson in January 2015 said he briefly had doubts about whether it was a good idea to continue with SpaceShipTwo’s development after the crash — but his commitment was renewed when he returned to California’s Mojave Desert. Branson is one of those billionaires who believe in giving back. While Branson keeps contributing to charity every now and then, it is his humanitarian efforts that are worth mentioning. Branson is one of the backers and founder members of “The Elders,” a group founded by Nelson Mandela that looks to leverage the power of influential people to find peaceful resolutions to conflicts. Another humanitarian initiative of Branson is the International Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an organization that helps locate missing children and put an end to young people’s exploitation. (SD-Agencies) | 