Billionaire Richard Branson launched a Virgin Galactic vessel destined for the edge of space from a facility in New Mexico on Sunday, hoping to kickstart the budding space tourism sector. At around 8:40 a.m. Mountain Time (1440 GMT), a massive carrier plane took off horizontally from Space Port, New Mexico, and will ascend for about an hour to an altitude of 50,000 feet (15 kilometres). The mothership will subsequently drop a VSS Unity rocket-powered spaceplane, which will start its engine and ascend at Mach 3 above the 50-mile (80-kilometer) mark, carrying two pilots and four passengers. Passengers can unbuckle and enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness while observing the curve of the Earth through the ship’s 17 windows once the rocket engine is turned off. The ship will re-enter the dense section of the atmosphere and glide back to the runway after reaching a height of roughly 55 miles. “It’s a great day to go to space,” the brazen Brit remarked in a previous tweet, which included a video of him bike to the base and meeting with his crew, all Virgin personnel. Branson is also attempting to outdo Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos by becoming the first tycoon to cross … Continue reading Richard Branson takes off for space