Billionaire Richard Branson announced that the inaugural crewed flight of his space endeavor Virgin Galactic will take off July 11th, nine days prior to Jeff Bezos’ planned launch aboard the Blue Origin, and Branson will be aboard, the Associated Press reports.
While the Blue Origin launches in on a traditional rocket, the Virgin Galactic craft launches after release from a mother craft, an airplane that will release the craft about six miles above the Earth. The mothership, known as White Knight Two, before the six-passenger SpaceShipTwo release and ascends to 55 miles altitude for about ten minutes.