Richard Branson always dreamt of flying to space. In 2004, he founded his own spaceflight company, Virgin Galactic to turn his dreams into reality. It operates in the USA. After 17 years, the business tycoon is all set to fly into outer space and take off from a base in New Mexico on July 11.

The billionaire will board a Virgin Galactic vessel bound for the edge of space. By reaching outer space, Branson will be making a historical record. He will become the first billionaire to fly into outer space.

Besides Branson, another billionaire who is eyeing for the same mission is Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos. He is scheduled to fly his own rocket to outer space later this month on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

The Amazon founder’s great rival, Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX), showed his support to Branson on Twitter. He wrote, “Will see you there to wish you the best.”

But Guess who Indians are cheering for? The answer is – “Namma ooru payan [Our country boy] Sir Richard.” Courtesy, Richard’s deep-rooted connection with India.

Back in December 2019, Sir Richard Branson had revealed his ties to India at a press conference during the launch of Virgin Atlantic’s flight from Mumbai to London. He had told reporters that a DNA test revealed how some of his ancestors were of Indian descent. He had revealed to reporters, “I knew that I had past generations living in India, but hadn’t realized how strong our connections were. So, it turned out that from 1793, we had four generations living here in Cuddalore and one of my great, great, great grandmothers was an Indian named Aria who was married to one of my great, great, great grandfathers.”

He also added, “Every time I meet an Indian, I say we might be relatives.”

In a social media post, he wrote, “Great to be in India to celebrate @virginatlantic’s new route to Mumbai and join #AnandMahindra, for our Business is an Adventure event. We also unveiled our newest flying icon, named Aria, after my great great great grandfather’s wife who was Indian.”

The first spaceflight from Virgin Galactic, VSS Unity (previously referred to as VSS Voyager, is a SpaceShipTwo-class suborbital rocket-powered crewed spaceplane) will be having a six-member crew. Interestingly, one of the crew members- Sirisha Bandla is of Indian Origin. The 34-year-old aeronautical engineer tweeted about her excitement to be part of this giant mission. She wrote, “I am so incredibly honored to be a part of the amazing crew of #Unity22, and to be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all.”

While announcing his journey to outer space, Sir Richard Branson said in a tweet, “I have always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. On July 11, it is time to turn that dream into a reality aboard the next @VirginGalactic spaceflight.”

The Unity 22 mission is Virgin Galactic’s fourth spaceflight with a crew on board. It is  VSS Unity’s twenty-second test flight  Additionally, it will be the first spaceflight with two pilots and four mission specialists inside the cabin, including the company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson.

 

The spaceflight will have a live stream provided on Virgin Galactic’s website. After this flight, Virgin Galactic is planning two more flights, before starting for regular commercial operations in early 2022. The ultimate goal is to conduct 400 flights per year.