Yes the reality of commercial space flight for the masses remains decades away but the race between billionaires Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson to be the first into space makes for captivating viewing. The race took a sharp turn today as Virgin Galactic announced its VSS Unity 22 will launch on July 11 with the founder Branson on board as “Astronaut 001” – pipping Bezos’s planned New Shephard launch on July 20 by just nine days.
Both stories are being followed closely by our sister magazine Aviation Life – click here to read today’s Virgin Galactic story and here for the most recent announcement from Jess Bezos that Wally Funk will be joining his crew later this month.
Looking up to space provides a welcome respite of sorts from the continuing impact of the pandemic on our existing aviation industry that continues to grapple with not only restrictions on flights, and free movement of people around the world due to mainly quarantine restrictions, but also with constant environmental pressures for the industry to do more to decarbonise.