What is Richard Branson's net worth and who is travelling with him on space flight?
The 12 - our new FREE email with all the news you need Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. I'M IN Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice  Richard Branson is among the worlds richest men, and has a successful track record in the transport, fitness and finance fields. But hes now setting his sights on something out of this world - and is preparing to go into space on a rocket as part of his Virgin Galactic venture. So far, the flights are only running on a testing basis. Yet, thats not stopped hundreds of people who have signed up for the intergalactic mission and they soon could be on one of the worlds first commercial flights into space. With Richard Branson himself worth billions, he seems like an ideal guy to invest money into a mission that could see us all one day having a holiday in space. Weve got the information. According to The Times , Richard Branson is worth a hefty 3.79bn. This includes the money he earns from all his Virgin enterprises. According to Forbes , the wealthy businessman began his career as a mail-order executive, some half a century ago. Richard is thought to live on Necker Island, a retreat on the British Virgin Islands, which he bought in the 1970s for $180,000. Virgin Galactic is planning its twenty-second test launch into space, which is due to happen today (Sunday, July 11, 2021). It will see the rocket ship, VSS Unity, and its carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, go into space with a crew of four pilots and four mission specialists, including Richard Branson himself. Beth Moses will be heading up the mission specialists as chief astronaut instructor. Her main job will be to see if the space flights objectives have been met. Also on the flight will be Colin Bennett, who serves as the lead operations engineer at Virgin Galactic. His main job will be to examine procedures, equipment and experience throughout the journey. Sirisha Bandla, the vice-president of government affairs and research operations at Virgin Galactic, will be the third person taking to space on the flight. Her main job will be evaluating the research experience by carrying out an experiment onboard the flight. The final mission specialist is Richard Branson himself, who will be evaluating the private astronaut experience. In addition to the mission specialists, there are also four pilots: two on VSS Unity and two on VMS Eve. Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci will be flying VSS Unity, while CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer will pilot operations onboard VMS Eve. We dont know the full cost of the space flight, but according to the BBC , 600 wealthy individuals have said theyd like to take the commercial spaceflight, when it operates, with a ticket costing up to $250,000 (180,000) each. VSS Unity is only able to have six passengers and two pilots onboard, so for now it appears rather restricted in terms of allowing more people the space experience. Having said that, the company is hoping to roll out its commercial flights in 2022 once its completed two more tests.