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Richard Branson finally goes to space on Sunday.
It’s been a long wait for Mr Branson, the irreverent 70-year-old British billionaire who leads a galaxy of Virgin companies. In 2004, he founded Virgin Galactic to provide adventure tourists with trips to the edge of space and back in rocket-powered airplanes.
At the time, he thought commercial service would begin in two to three years. Instead, nearly 17 years passed. Virgin Galactic says it needs to run three more test flights, including Sunday, before it’s ready for paying passengers.
For this flight, Mr. Branson will be a member of the crew. Its job is to evaluate the cabin experience for future customers.
After the cars had taken Mr Branson and his crew to the plane, the plane took off at around 10:40 pm Eastern time from Spaceport America in New Mexico, about 180 miles south of Albuquerque. Virgin publishes coverage of flightor you can watch it in the video player embedded above.
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