Watch the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 spaceflight mission with founder Richard Branson here
Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson and a full crew will be participating in the company's biggest mission to date. Watch the Unity 22 mission here.
Billionaires and space are super hot right now, and Richard Branson definitely fits the bill. His company Virgin Galactic is set to lift off with their first mission with a full crew. What better time for the billionaire founder to join in on the fun, right? Let's watch Virgin Galactic Unity 22 Spaceflight Livestream here. Please take a look.
Here's a breakdown of Virgin Galactic Unity 22 Spaceflight Mission from the company:
The “Unity 22” mission will be the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity and the Company’s fourth crewed spaceflight. It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, including the Company’s founder, Sir Richard Branson, who will be testing the private astronaut experience.
Building on the success of the Company’s most recent spaceflight in May, Unity 22 will focus on cabin and customer experience objectives, including:
- Evaluating the commercial customer cabin with a full crew, including the cabin environment, seat comfort, the weightless experience, and the views of Earth that the spaceship delivers — all to ensure every moment of the astronaut’s journey maximizes the wonder and awe created by space travel
- Demonstrating the conditions for conducting human-tended research experiments
- Confirming the training program at Spaceport America supports the spaceflight experience
The flight’s four mission specialists will be:
- Beth Moses, Chief Astronaut Instructor at Virgin Galactic. Moses will serve as cabin lead and test director in space, overseeing the safe and efficient execution of the test flight objectives.
- Colin Bennett, Lead Operations Engineer at Virgin Galactic. Bennett will evaluate cabin equipment, procedures, and experience during both the boost phase and in the weightless environment.
- Sirisha Bandla, Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galactic. Bandla will be evaluating the human-tended research experience, using an experiment from the University of Florida that requires several handheld fixation tubes that will be activated at various points in the flight profile.
- Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic. Branson will evaluate the private astronaut experience and will undergo the same training, preparation and flight as Virgin Galactic’s future astronauts. The Company will use his observations from his flight training and spaceflight experience to enhance the journey for all future astronaut customers.
The pilots for this mission are Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci flying VSS Unity, and CJ Sturckow and Kelly Latimer flying VMS Eve.
Following this flight, and in line with normal procedures, the team will complete inspections of the vehicles and an extensive data review, which will inform the next steps in the test flight program. Two additional test flights are planned before the Company expects to commence commercial service in 2022.
Sir Richard Branson said: “I truly believe that space belongs to all of us. After more than 16 years of research, engineering, and testing, Virgin Galactic stands at the vanguard of a new commercial space industry, which is set to open space to humankind and change the world for good. It’s one thing to have a dream of making space more accessible to all; it’s another for an incredible team to collectively turn that dream into reality. As part of a remarkable crew of mission specialists, I’m honoured to help validate the journey our future astronauts will undertake and ensure we deliver the unique customer experience people expect from Virgin.”
What time does Virgin Galactic Unity 22 launch?
The Virgin Galactic Unity 22 Spaceflight Livestream is expected to begin at 6:00 am PDT / 9:00 am EDT / 2 pm BST on the July 11, 2021.
Where to watch the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 space flight mission?
For the first time ever, Virgin Galactic will share a global livestream of the spaceflight. Audiences around the world are invited to participate virtually in the Unity 22 test flight and see first-hand the extraordinary experience Virgin Galactic is creating for future astronauts. The livestream will be available to watch on VirginGalactic.com and will be simulcast on the Virgin Galactic Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook channels.
Today's Unity 22 mission is only set to last 22 seconds. If weather and conditions hold up for launch, Sir Richard Branson and his crew will be back on land in no time. One of his fellow billionaire space men will even be in attendance to wish him well, and it isn't Jeff Bezos.
Thanks for being so typically supportive and such a good friend, Elon. Great to be opening up space for all - safe travels and see you at Spaceport America! #Unity22 @virgingalactic https://t.co/fLCoeJOPJJ
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) July 10, 2021
That's right, SpaceX Founder Elon Musk will be there to cheer on his billionaire buddy Branson before he blasts off. If you were asleep when it all went down, be sure to check out the VOD which will be embedded at the top of the article.
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Shacknews
replyShack Staff posted a new article, Watch the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 spaceflight mission with founder Richard Branson here
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Virgin Galactic and Richard Branson is set to liftoff on their sub-orbital flight in 30 minutes.
Official stream: https://youtu.be/RTpWYWIfP7Y
There are other channels also covering the flight.-
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True dat. But most of us just go "ugh" when we think about wealth and wealth inequality
https://i.imgur.com/Aluno7h.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/vuR5nYt.jpg
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM
Note that this is from 2012. I probably should have found something more recent.
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These visionary billionaires could dissolve their fortunes and hand each of us a few dollars that would quickly vanish into the sea of spending we all do every day to no noticeable effect. Why not let them put that money into doing the heavy lifting that can help build a future that might well give us the tools to save us all? That is an inspiration to us all, and offers the possibility to reinvent ourselves as we all eventually get the chance to fly tomorrow where they fly today?
There are many icons and egos out there whose power and fortunes come from worse places and are being used to do much worse things. And there have been and are other races going on right now, be it in arms, energy, and government vs. government space races that highlight the worst in us and offer nothing in return to humanity for the waste they create.
https://www.space.com/billionaires-space-race-real-impact-op-ed
lol, stanning so hard for ruthless billionaires because space travel is cool (it is!).
Look at their life history. These are not the robber barons of the 1800s. Jeff Bezos gave a high school commencement speech where he talked of settling space. Elon Musk tried to send a symbolic living sample of Earth life to Mars with his fortune from eBay buying PayPal. And Richard Branson's ongoing social and environmental work is well known. They are Apollo's children. Raised on images of humans both ready to destroy the Earth and yet exploring the cosmos, who chose to use their massive fortunes to free us to try new ways of living together in new societies out there, and fire the dreams of the next generation, rather than conquer others and fill the sky with the smoke of industry.
*barf*
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Billionaire Dick waving in spaaaaaaace.
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I found a local TV station with a feed. Forgot Branson is a freak with the mothership eve https://youtu.be/We03q_Mv8uM
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It's weird that these flights are getting so much coverage.
If I were worth $6B I could go into space too. It's not remarkable or a big achievement for these guys.
I am sure Bezos and Branson had to train and study for these trips but, again, they have billions of dollars and can dedicate as much time as needed for learning.
It's not a feat! It's just someone spending a lot of money!-
"Middle-class man travels by jet to Asia" is the equivalent for normal people
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Bingo. It's weird and in many ways not a big deal but it's a necessary step for our civilization to grow up.
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Seems kinda obvious to me why its getting so much coverage. The distinct possibility that the whole craft could explode in a fiery ball of death... which in itself would be tragic, but with someone as famous and rich as Branson, that makes the stakes even larger. He's got so much to risk/lose, so I think it's quite a statement that he puts his life and trust in the hands of his own company and craft.
Also... space flight is dope! I hope it's a great success! -
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Here's his flight on flightradar 24 https://www.flightradar24.com/VGX01/285e221f
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yeah, that was ridiculous.
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Yeah somebody should tell him that space is Yuri Gagarin territory, a Russian cosmonaught. So it was that on April 12, 1961, Vostok 1 lifted Yuri Gagarin into space, the first human being to travel there. His orbit, which lasted for an hour and 48 minutes, had a few unsettling moments.
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Everyone have their ape mask ready for when he comes back?
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Chris Hatfield >>>>> everyone else on this broadcast
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Yeah it's better than what most rich people spend their money on, I guess.
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Haha. With how shitty NASA’s budget it, it’s just a way to increase spending on space travel with these guys voluntarily investing their untaxed wealth into it. If these guys gave more income to the government, NASA (and their foreign counterparts) funding wouldn’t go up that much. I’ll call it a net gain with these guys.
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you have to understand the marketing behind this. This is for executives who dreamt about space as a kid, got wide eyed looking through their uncle's telescope and gazed in awe up at the milky way while lying on their sleeping bag at summer camp. Then they grew up and got an MBA and a wife and four kids and a dead bedroom. They made a decent living for themselves, a nice little mcmansion and two matching BMWs. But there's this nagging feeling that they missed out somehow. They missed something that the little kid inside them always wanted.
ALONG COMES RICHARD FUCKING BRANSON WOOO. YOU CAN GO TO SPACE NOW MOTHERFUCKER
These people absolutely will spend the money because they consider it a once in a lifetime wish fulfillment thing. What good is money vs something you always wanted to experience as long as you've been alive?
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94% of American households do not have a few million in the bank. 98% of Americans do not have five million dollars. It would take the average American 6 years to earn $250,000 so if they could somehow manage to spend $0, pay $0 in taxes, and work 40 hours a week for 312 weeks they could then purchase a few minute flight. 11% of households have a net worth of one million dollars but that doesn't make shedding 25% of your net worth on a ticket very plausible.
Reminder: Most Americans earn less than $50k a year (70% of them). Most Americans aren't rich or even wealthy, only 9% earn $100k or more. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and even minor financial emergencies can crush them.-
What's your point here? Of course it's not accessible to a majority or even small portion of people. Prior to these private companies it wasn't accessible to individuals at all. Full stop.
Have to start somewhere. Prices will come down over time. Maybe not enough that we can do it in our lifetimes, but who knows!-
Russia took the first tourist to the ISS 20 years ago, so like real space. https://www.space.com/11492-space-tourism-pioneer-dennis-tito.html
So it was accessible to individuals prior to private industry stepping up.
The point was $1,000,000 isn't really rich in terms of space travel, despite being wealthier than 89% of the American population.
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What I'm saying is 250,000 is not an insignificant amount for a millionaire. Sure, you could technically afford it but spending 25% of your money on it would be a major purchase. A very expensive endeavor. To do it as a millionaire would be the equivalent of the average person coughing up $10,000 for bus ticket to Cleveland... just not likely to happen. Very few people are going to spend 25% of their net worth on any ticket.
This is for the rich. Not the poorer millionaires, and not for 98.5% of Americans.-
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Y'all just seriously underestimate what people will spend money on, if they fucking want to. There are people on this very fucking website who can afford it. There are people here driving around in $100k Model Xs and flying helicopters and shit. You can spend that much money on a track car. Or a boat. Or any number of things bored peopel do to distract themselves while waiting to die. Give me a few years and I could cash out my retirement and pay for it if i wanted to YOLO it and then live in a cardboard box.
Your arguement that people don't make dumb as hell financial decisions. This is an aspirational dream for millions of American children who watched apollo or the Shuttle and wanted desperately to go to space. you don't have to be Super Rich, you just have to be able to write the check and still pay your mortgage.-
I never said people don't make dumb financial decisions but generally speaking someone with a million or more dollars probably hasn't made too many dumb decisions. Generally speaking rich people are tighter with their money than poor people.
As far as being aspirational, sure. Not unusual for kids to dream of being astronauts... it's been a thing for 60 or 70 years at least, but having an extra $250,000 to spend is almost less likely than becoming an actual astronaut for most people.-
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Probably. We do live on credit.
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You know those lame videos on tiktok of people waving their stimulus money around and then blowing it on something stupid?
This is the same except it's thousands of people who will go to bed hungry that month instead of just one.-
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I think SpaceshipOne was cool. I have respect for Rutan and Scaled Composites and their work. But this system was built to do one thing, go straight up and come down. They were 9 miles even short of the Karman line. What are we exploring? What are we advancing? This thing will never and can never be adapted into an orbital system. It's cool, and I don't mind that it exists, but to act like they're unlocking doors for future generations by putting middle managers from Google into free fall for 5 minutes is indeed dumb as hell. That whole presentation was basically like extolling the beauty and power of human relationships after getting a hummer in the back seat of a toyota
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There’s an argument to be made that the attitude of “don’t do things like this until everything is fixed back home” is countered with “it’s never going to be the case that everything is fixed so that’s not a good enough reason to hold up progress in other areas”
Especially seeing as how it’s not like progress is an infinite move forward. We elected a black president and then elected a white supremacist buffoon and we’re passing legislation to try and set progress back decades.
So fuck it let the billionaire try and move things forward in this area.
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Good flight. Excellent milestone for humanity. Congrats to Branson and the whole chrome Virgin team.
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So who's entering the contest for a ticket? https://www.omaze.com/products/virgin-galactic-2021?ref=space
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