Will winning the billionaire space race be Richard Bransons greatest achievement?
Say what you will about Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson, or Beardie to his detractors, but hes not afraid of a challenge. Soon, with luck, he will be the first billionaire in space, which is more meaningful than it sounds, given the competition. If it all goes to plan, Branson will be on board the next test flight his Virgin Galactic winged rocket ship (a cross between a plane and a missile) departing Earth (New Mexico) on July 11th. In doing so Branson will beat Jeff Bezos, of Amazon fame and fortune, into space by nine days and, almost as important, overshadow Bezos remarkable PR coupe of last week when he arranged for the 82-year-old Wally Funk to be the first passenger in space. She trained as an astronaut in the 1960s, but, for reasons that are unforgettable all obvious, the time was not right for a female to take that giant leap. According to the corporate hype, Branson is Astronaut 001, and his role is: Evaluating customer space flight experience (though all passengers will be Virgin staff). It is a typical Branson move. It is cheeky, indeed audacious, of course, and demonstrates his alertness to the main chance. A half-century ago now he founded his business empire when he observed that you could undercut the regular high street record stores (were talking golden era of vinyl here) by acquiring discs that were certified as destined for export and thus exempt at wholesale prices from purchase tax (the forerunner of VAT), which was levied at 33 per cent. That translated into a big saving for the record buyer, a big profit for Virgin Records, but a big legal problem and expensive settlement when the tax authorities caught up with him. The bill was so large his parents had to mortgage their home to pay it off for him.