How much is Richard Bransons space mission costing him?
This mission is costing Richard Branson a pretty penny (Picture: ABACA/PA Images)  Billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson is set to fly into space on a Virgin Galactic test flight. Virgins SpaceShipTwo, called VSS Unity, is a winged rocket ship/space plane  and aims to be in suborbital space, more than 50 miles above Earth, for about four minutes, according to Space.com. The rocket launches today with a livestream starting at 2pm UK time  and is no doubt going to be eye-wateringly expensive. After all, Virgin Galactic are set to win the so-called billionaire space race to achieve commercial space travel  with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos company Blue Origin not set to fly him to space until July 20. Heres what we can gather. The exact price of this Richard Bransons adventure is unknown, however, GQ estimates it to be around $600 million (approximately 434 million). With the rocket only sub-orbiting Earth for four minutes, thats around a jaw-dropping 108.5 million for every 60 seconds. The entire flight, from take off to landing, may only last for around 90 minutes. The mission is being partly funded by the almost 700 people  reportedly including Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, and Justin Bieber  who have paid upfront for a ticket to become a future astronaut. Tickets have been going for a reported 180,000 (or $250,000 USD). While that accessibility is currently only to the very wealthiest, Branson hopes that that price can come down as Virgin Galactics fleet expands and operations become more streamlined. MORE : Virgin Galactic launch: How to watch Richard Branson fly to space  MORE : Richard Bransons daughter Holly spent seven years identifying as a boy during her childhood  Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram  Share your views in the comments below